Bryant Slowly Grasping Triangle Points

Waiting to clear customs at the Toronto airport Saturday, Coach Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant had a chat about Bryant’s role on the team and his tendency at times to operate a bit outside of the triangle offense’s rules.

What did Jackson tell Bryant?

“Pick your spots, know the whole team aspect, rather than the individual aspect, the game situation, the clock situation,” Jackson said Sunday.

“Look for your opportunities to run, but . . . make that team organize the offense, make the opponents get down and play defense; they’re behind, they’re going to want to really get the ball and score because they’re behind, make them make mistakes on defense . . . “

After Sunday’s victory over the free-spirited Toronto Raptors, in which Bryant once again did some amazing and reckless things, the Laker guard said he knows he still sometimes gets caught up in open-court, one-on-one battles.

“Oh hell yeah,” Bryant said. “Oh absolutely. . . It’s easy to get caught up in a one-on-one confrontation, especially against this team. But my job on this team is to dissect, to find which way we need to go in certain situations.”

What did Bryant get from his talk with Jackson?

“Phil is a different kind of coach,” Bryant said. “In the past, coaches might say something, might have taken me out of the game. Phil said something to me yesterday at the airport. He said something to me at halftime.

“And that’s it. From then on out, if I messed up, I knew that I messed up right there. . . I say, ‘OK, hold on, I’ve got to step back.’

“Some of them will guide you but they won’t let you learn on your own.”

TONIGHT

at Boston

4 PST, Channel 9

(delayed, 6 PST)

* Site: FleetCenter.

* Radio: KLAC (570).

* Records: Lakers 21-5; Celtics 10-13.

* 1999 season series: did not play.

* Update: The Lakers know that Boston Coach Rick Pitino’s pressing, up-tempo style is exactly what their tired legs do not need to endure, coming at the end of a four-game, five-day trip and the second of back-to-back games. Paul Pierce is averaging 19 points and Antoine Walker 18.7, while Tony Battie, whom the Lakers traded to acquire Travis Knight, has been starting at center lately.