Pain Does Little to Slow Bryant

By TIM KAWAKAMI

Feb. 28, 2000 12 AM PT

Kobe Bryant has a stiff left calf, recently suffered a strained right index finger, and missed 15 games at the start of the season because of a broken right hand.

So he’s slowing down, right?

“I feel fine,” Bryant said after scoring a game-high 31 points in Sunday’s victory over Houston. “When you have any type of physical pain, it steps you up mentally.”

Before the game, Coach Phil Jackson suggested that Bryant ought to back off some on his more spectacular impulses, pointing out that the 360-degree dunk he performed in Friday’s game might have been pushing it a bit.

“I’m trying to talk him out of those 360s,” Jackson said with a smile. “To twist your legs like that and to take off at an angle . . . Less is more--that’s kind of what I’m after with Kobe.

“It’s sensational, he had two of them in the same game, that’s phenomenal, but I think the second one strained his calf.”

In Sunday’s game, Bryant had a chance right away to take his coach’s words to heart, and tomahawked one through the rim anyway.

“That first dunk I didn’t even mean to jump,” Bryant said. “Phil’s like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ I said, ‘Phil, I didn’t mean to.’ ”

Bryant confirmed that Jackson has told him to cut back on the spinning slams.

“He said the body ain’t meant for that,” Bryant said. “I said, your body ain’t meant for that . . .

“You know what? I’ll get a fastbreak, next time I’ll lay it up.”

Forward Glen Rice was interviewed by NBC’s Jim Gray at halftime, but after the game again announced through the Laker public relations office that he would not speak to reporters. Asked why he spoke to Gray, Rice said: “Snuck up on me.”

Jackson said he hasn’t directly spoken to Rice about the trade deadline passing.

“We’ve talked, but we haven’t talked trade talk, or non-trade talk,” Jackson said. “But we’ve talked a little bit, and we’ve talked as a group about it.

“I don’t know if [Rice being mentioned in trade speculation] was affecting him or he really felt it was a threatening thing. You guys know more about it than I do.

“I think obviously that any great deal amount of talk brings focus and he just didn’t want that focus going in that direction at that time.”

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Triple Plays

The Big 3

Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and Glen Rice have been the driving force behind the Lakers’ success. How they fared:

O’Neal

*--*

Sun. Season 24 Points 27.8 13 Rebounds 14.2 8 Assists 3.8

*--*

Bryant

*--*

Sun. Season 31 Points 22.2 4 Rebounds 5.9 6 Assists 4.5