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Jackson still puts stock in sharing

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Times Staff Writer

The triangle was distorted, the offense unbalanced.

Somewhere, Tex Winter, the architect of the triangle offense, was cringing.

The Lakers didn’t win a game in Seattle as much as they survived it, sneaking past the SuperSonics in overtime Monday night thanks to Kobe Bryant’s season-high 48 points. Or maybe it was despite Bryant’s 48 points.

Bryant took a staggering 44 shots in 42 minutes, only three shots shy of his career high in a game.

He made 21 of them, but teammates began deferring to him and passing up their own shots as the game progressed, notably Luke Walton and Lamar Odom. Both were yanked by Coach Phil Jackson early in overtime and sat out a little more than a minute before returning.

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Odom seemed particularly surprised, taking a long, slow walk to the bench as the substitutes entered.

Odom and Walton combined for 10 points on four-for-21 shooting.

Jackson, a longtime proponent of the share-the-ball mind-set, didn’t seem enthralled with what he saw from Bryant, comparing his shot count to whacking a bunch of golf balls and occasionally hitting some good ones.

Jackson then suggested how to restore what had been a balanced offense, even though the task has become more daunting with injured center Andrew Bynum out for at least eight weeks.

“Try to get Lamar and Luke in a rhythm,” Jackson said. “Lamar just had an awful night and kept passing the ball. Fortunately for us, we found a way to win.”

Indeed, the Lakers improved to 26-11, the most games over .500 they’ve been since the end of the 2003-04 season, although the competition gets tough very quickly, with home games against Phoenix and Denver before a trip to San Antonio and Dallas.

Kwame Brown had 10 points and 10 rebounds in his first start in almost two months. He played a season-high 39 minutes and looked fatigued at times, confused at others.

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“I think he got tired and Ronny [Turiaf] had [too many] fouls, so he had to play through it. . . . There was no one else to take his position,” Jackson said.

Brown was, however, a key in overtime.

In fact, Jackson cracked a joke when asked how the Lakers were able to overcome a four-point overtime deficit.

“The impossible way of Kwame hitting a couple foul shots for us,” he said.

Brown made four of six free-throw attempts, including two of two in overtime, after going one for four in Sunday’s 100-99 victory over Memphis.

The timing of Bynum’s injury could hardly be worse, with the Lakers riding so high near the midpoint of the season.

“No time’s a good time. It really isn’t,” Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said. “If it happens at the beginning of the year, you say, ‘We wanted to get off to a good start.’ If it happens near the end of the year, you say, ‘We wanted to get momentum for the playoffs.’ It happens now and you say, ‘We have this [nine-game] road trip coming up and a tough part of the schedule.’ ”

Lost among the recent story lines of the Lakers’ success (seven consecutive victories) and sorrow (Bynum’s injury) was a memorable couple of weeks for undrafted rookie Coby Karl.

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He scored his first NBA basket Jan. 4 against Philadelphia and made his first NBA three-pointer two games later. Then, last Thursday, his contract became guaranteed for the rest of the season.

He has also made appearances in the first half of some recent games.

“Guys always tell you, ‘You have to be patient. You’re a rookie. Wait your turn,’ ” Karl said. “Some guys went down with injuries and it’s opened up an opportunity for me to suit up and I’ve gotten the chance to get on the floor a couple times.”

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mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

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