Bryant Is Hardly Disruptive

The Lakers are 11-1 since Kobe Bryant returned from a broken hand, and he averaged 27.8 points while shooting 47.5% on their recent four-game road sweep, indicating Bryant hasn’t exactly been a detriment to the Lakers’ rhythm.

“He’s great--way more mature than I could ever imagine a 21-year-old kid could be,” Coach Phil Jackson said after Wednesday’s practice.

“A lot of times Kobe will take his own lead out there, and I understand that. Sometimes you don’t want to misuse your own judgment as a player. And I understand that, he’s got to be able to read on his own, and that’s very important.

“That’s why [Ron] Harper’s out there with him. Because he’s got a cool hand and he knows what I want and he knows how to organize the offense in ways that are subtle.”

Bryant, for his part, said he knows his teammates sometimes grumble about his one-on-one tendencies.

“It’ll bother me at that moment,” Bryant said of the criticism. “But when we sit down and watch film, it won’t be as bad as portrayed. It might be like one or two times, whatever took place, but it wouldn’t be as bad as the previous starts.

“So you just eliminate those couple times, that’s it.”

And when he hears people dissect and critique every one of his fourth-quarter missed shots?

“I’m not afraid [to get people upset],” Bryant said. “I think you all should know that by now. I mean, I just go out there and just do my job. If something goes wrong, it goes wrong. I can live with that, and we can live with that.

“But for the most part, I’m just out there playing, trying to put Ws in the column.”