Bryant Is Star of Show Again

It would probably be easier to wonder why Kobe Bryant took all of those shots if so many weren’t going in, and if he wasn’t also getting the rebounds and the put-backs.

And if he wasn’t leading the team in assists, and if he wasn’t almost always open, and if he wasn’t so sturdy on defense, and if the Lakers didn’t win so much.

Then, maybe.

It would probably be easier if he hadn’t played 45 minutes, scored 38 points, taken 10 rebounds and led the Lakers to a 99-97 victory against Dallas on Sunday night at Staples Center.

“I’m just out there playing,” Bryant said.

His nose red and sore from flu, his hands wrapped around two bottles of medication, Bryant wore a winter cap and two jackets when he walked from the Laker locker room, leaving an odd game behind him.

Two days after he scored a career-high 43 points, Bryant was 15 for 28 from the field.

Shaquille O’Neal had 25 points and 14 rebounds, but missed 14 of 19 free-throw attempts.

So, with Dallas Coach Don Nelson trembling in anticipation of his most favored Hack-a-Shaq tactics, Phil Jackson benched O’Neal for all but 40 seconds of the final five minutes. O’Neal didn’t complain.

With O’Neal off the floor in that period, the Lakers were outscored 22-14. The Mavericks lost because Bryant scored six points in the final minute and because Robert Horry and Isaiah Rider, who played 26 strong minutes, made their free throws. Michael Finley and Dirk Nowitzki each scored 10 fourth-quarter points, three of Nowitzki’s on a shot at the buzzer.

“We survived,” Jackson said, and later added, “We got a lot out of our offense, and Kobe initiated a lot of it.”

From O’Neal’s free throws to what might have been a critical late turnover by Bryant, they did narrowly escape.

“I just have to try to go to the line and concentrate a little more,” O’Neal said. “It almost worked tonight, but my teammates stepped up for me, they played without me for a few minutes and they won the game.”

Typically defiant regarding his free throws, O’Neal appeared somewhat downcast over his recent woes. Sunday’s five for 19 came on the heels of Friday’s six for 14. He is shooting 38.9% for the season, 34% in his last four games.

Therefore, when Nelson had Shaq hacked with 5:20 remaining and the Lakers holding an eight-point lead, Jackson replaced O’Neal with Horace Grant.

“I haven’t seen Shaq that inadequate from the line this season,” Jackson said. “But we survived it.”

At times last season, O’Neal politicked to stay in these games and often made the free throws that won games. Not this time.

“I didn’t say anything,” O’Neal said. “I thought it was a good move on Phil’s part. We have a lot of weapons on this team. Phil did what he felt was necessary. I have to go to the line and hit them. And I can hit them.

“I just have to make them,” he said. “If that’s the way they want to play it, I have to eliminate their strategy. That’s the same thing as last year and it didn’t work last year.”

At the end, Bryant was on the court with Horry, Grant, Brian Shaw or Ron Harper, and Rider. It was Rider who scored the final two Laker points, the ones that made Nowitzki’s final shot unimportant. It was Rider who made a critical defensive play on a Howard Eisley runout. It was Rider who scored 11 points and threw in some staunch one-on-one defense.

He left the court to cheers. Fans leaned over the railing and slapped his hands, and he happily complied.

But it was Bryant, again, who made the difference, who guided the offense, who sometimes led it astray, but who was there at the end.

It was Nelson, then, who fumed. He believed that the Lakers deserved to lose.

“I’ve asked Mark Cuban to not comment on the officials because I don’t think it’s wise to do that,” Nelson said. “But, I would like the league to evaluate this [game] film--and give us an explanation of why every break was given to the Lakers in the fourth quarter. I am not a complainer, or very seldom do I complain, but anybody watching this game tonight could see for themselves we need to have the league look at this film carefully.”

Cuban, the Maverick owner, sat in the second row, behind the Maverick bench, mostly inconspicuous. He would be, though, in an arena that also held Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty, four tinted lenses between them, in the same sight line.

Jackson was asked before the game if any part of him hoped to beat the Mavericks for the purity of rubbing Cuban’s nose in it. Zen guys are above that, maybe.

“There’s nothing there,” Jackson said, “that has to do with that.”

Cuban had a good look, then, at another monster game from Bryant.

“Kobe played another fabulous game,” O’Neal said. “All the role players played well, too. We could have played better defense down the stretch, but we just have to keep it going, keep playing, fight through all the strategies.”

*

BOSTON 96, CLIPPERS 87

Turnovers and poor shooting contribute to second consecutive frustrating loss on six-game trip. D4