Bryant Nursing Sore Right Shoulder

Kobe Bryant wore an ice pack on his sore right shoulder after Friday’s victory over the Dallas Mavericks.

The injury arose Thursday, when he reached too far back on a tomahawk dunk, and by Friday it bothered him on full extension. As a result, Bryant said, he shot his jumper with less arc Friday, though he scored 35 points.

“It’s hurting right now,” he said. “The time it hurt the most was when I went for a high rebound.”

Bryant said he would ice the shoulder through the weekend. The Lakers do not practice today, but probably will Sunday. It didn’t seem to bother him, of course. His first-quarter dunk over 7-footer Dirk Nowitzki was perhaps his most aggressive and flashiest of the season.

Bryant raised his league-leading scoring average to 29.8 points. He averaged 35.8 points on the four-game trip, which the Lakers swept by a total of 15 points.

“We are seeing a very special player in Kobe Bryant,” Maverick Coach Don Nelson said. “We’ve seen them all and at this particular time he is the best player in the league. Without a question, there is nobody as good as he is right now. I know he has all those comparisons with Michael [Jordan], but at this stage of his career, at his age, I’ve never seen a player any better.”

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Of course Phil Jackson has seen it before, the shots that seem to hit only the back of the net, shot after shot, possession after possession, when the ball found the right guy and then the basket.

Another time. Another team. The guy named Jordan.

This game Bryant had on Thursday night, though, was something so close to that, you knew Jackson breathed it in like one of those postgame Cohibas.

Bryant scored 45 points. He made 20 of 26 shots. He squared his shoulders and made jump shots, defenders hanging from his elbows, then took alley-oops and made them outrageous, defenders at this knees.

“I’ve seen some wonderful performances by maybe the best player I’ve ever seen or coached in the game, and that game ranks at the top of any game I’ve ever seen played,” Jackson said. “That was a great performance.”

Trying to keep Bryant hot, Jackson came out of his regular pattern and pressed Bryant through his regular rest pattern.

“I can’t tell you how many 50-point games Michael had that I saw,” Jackson said. “But a lot of times he was taking 35 shots or 32 shots. I saw some 60-point games too. So there’s another level out there. But, you know, Michael took a game over. We’d find a way to get him the ball whatever it takes. I’ve never tried to do that with Kobe except in the fourth quarter, because we have the most dominant big man in the game. He’s got to get the ball and we’ve got to have that attack, which makes it much easier for Kobe having that kind of guy inside. His jump shot’s available. He doesn’t have to be that creative to get a shot off. One dribble and he stops and pulls up and he’s open.”

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O’Neal’s free-throw percentage is .382, even with a game at 50%.

The last player to make less than 40% of his free throws, shooting at least 200, was Wilt Chamberlain. He made 38% in 1967-68. . . . O’Neal has averaged 30.6 points in 21 games against the Mavericks, the most by any opponent. More than Jordan or Larry Bird. That’s why they hack. . . . A night after the Lakers drew the first sellout of the season at Houston, they drew the first of the season at Dallas.