Garbage Can't Soil Kobe

By TIM KAWAKAMI

Dec. 2, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

He was a flight to behold, wearing one purple glove and seven weeks of rust.

In his long-awaited regular-season debut, Kobe Bryant zipped and bolted all over the floor Wednesday, launching himself toward the basket, twirling in the lane, getting himself into and out of trouble at hyper-speed, gesturing to the crowd, and generally making the Golden State Warriors seem even more irrelevant than usual.

There was a lot of energy displayed during the Lakers’ 93-75 victory before 17,689 at Staples Center, but the Warriors were not the ones furnishing it.

Center Shaquille O’Neal, once again facing a team with no answer for his power and speed, turned in yet another giant performance--28 points, 23 rebounds and four blocked shots, despite sitting out the fourth quarter for the second game in a row.

But it was Bryant, wearing a protective glove on his right hand and a crooked smile, who unleashed 15 missed games’ worth of pent-up passion.

“It was nice to have Kobe’s energy, even though he’s got a long ways to go before he gets the real feel of it--especially the touch on his shot, the rhythm of our offense, particularly,” Coach Phil Jackson said.

Jackson added that Bryant definitely would continue to come off the bench in Friday’s game against Portland.

Bryant played 30 minutes, scored 19 points, took 18 shots (making seven) and grabbed six rebounds, expectedly ragged but properly busy, including two shots with his left hand, which he worked on while recuperating from the bone he broke in his right hand Oct. 13.

He said he felt rusty early on, but felt better as the game progressed and never felt bothered by his hand or the protective padding and glove he wore on it.

Bryant said O’Neal teased him about the one-glove look.

“Shaq told me that after my first basket I should do a little Michael Jackson move or something,” said Bryant, who logically bypassed the advice.

Bryant did just about everything else, playing both guard positions, hawking the Warrior ballhandlers with ferocity, picking up four fouls and thumping his chest after his first signature move to the basket.

Is he ready to start?

“I’m ready to start wearing people out,” Bryant said.

Jackson said it was clear that Bryant was a player who had no training camp and who needs a while to regain his timing and cohesiveness with teammates.

“He took a right-handed shot at the start when he should’ve taken a left-handed shot, he took a left-handed shot later when he probably shouldn’t have,” Jackson said.

“So it’s just the excitement. He’s just a wild, impulsive kid right now.”

Bryant’s activity freed up some looser full-court play for the Lakers, who had been pretty much a half-court, possession-by-possession team in the 15 previous games.

Some of the speed play Wednesday was effective, some was not.

“We ran up and down the court five times and didn’t do anything,” Jackson said, “but we did run up and down the court and get a real punch in our game.”

After Tuesday’s impressive victory in Seattle, Jackson said he wasn’t pleased with the effort Wednesday, saying that the back-to-back scheduling seemed to affect O’Neal, Glen Rice (four-for-16 shooting) and Ron Harper (two-for-seven shooting, four turnovers).

The Lakers shot only 37.6%.

But the Warriors were never a threat, making only 28 of their 84 field-goal tries (33.3%) and turning the ball over 20 times.

It was the fourth consecutive time the Lakers (12-4) have held an opponent under 85 points--and all of those games have been victories.

The Lakers’ lead was 42-28 at halftime, with the feeble Warriors managing only 10 points--on four-for-17 shooting--in the second quarter, which O’Neal topped by himself, with 11.

Bryant made his first appearance with 2:54 left in the first quarter, subbing in for Derek Fisher with the Lakers ahead, 19-14, and immediately jumped into the much-anticipated matchup with . . . Vonteego Cummings.

His first basket came on a right-hand tip-in early in the second quarter, and when Jackson took him out, he had played nine minutes, scoring four points and getting three rebounds.

Bryant got back in about a minute later and finished out the half, trying one left-handed shot on the baseline that missed the basket entirely.

Before the game, Jackson said he had little fear that the normal flow of a basketball game could re-injure Bryant’s hand, and Bryant’s actions during the game hardly were restrained.

“Naw, I smacked him around this morning to see if he had any fear in it,” Jackson said of the Lakers’ shoot-around. “He just said, ‘C’mon, hit me harder--I don’t feel it.’

“So he feels real confident it’s going to stand up to any abuse that way. The only thing I can see is an accidental elbow, or bang on the rim or fall on the floor or something.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

He’s Back

Kobe Bryant played his first game Wednesday (back from broken bone in right hand). His stats compared to averages last season:

POINTS

Wednesday: 19

1999: 19.9

MINUTES

Wednesday: 30

1999: 37.9

FIELD GOALS

Wednesday: 7-18 39%

1999: 47%