LOS ANGELES -- Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant have faced off forever -- or maybe it just feels that way, because for the past 20 seasons, as players have come and gone, as coaches were hired and fired, as NBA dynasties rose and fell, those two icons remained, meeting up year after year, again and again, one of the only certainties in a league of constant change.
Friday marked their 82nd matchup counting the postseason, a staggering but poetic figure. Yes, they have played a regular-season's worth of games against each other, and just as the 82nd game marks a season's end, so too did Friday mark their end: the last time they'll ever play each other.