Bryant Takes Fun Approach

Sometimes, like everybody else out there, Kobe Bryant gets tied up in the little annoyances in life.

He shoots too much or not enough. He’s playing guard or forward. He likes Shaquille O’Neal. Or doesn’t. The Lakers are winning. Or not.

A week ago in Texas, Bryant awoke from a nap and recognized that he need not fight it all.

He has been more animated since. Against Houston on Sunday night he played to a crowd that delighted in his mischievous grins and gestures.

“I think sometimes I become so consumed by the game, so focused about the game, that I forget how much fun I’m having,” he said.

Bryant, who turned 22 in August, said the revelation was small, but meaningful.

“I woke up the afternoon in San Antonio before the game and just realized the job I had,” he said. “That was real. It’s an unbelievable feeling.”

Coach Phil Jackson said if Bryant has a lighter heart, he hasn’t seen it.

“He’s quiet, reserved, pretty much to himself most of the time,” Jackson said. “I didn’t detect anything there that was a swing in his orientation. Kobe’s just business. He’s a very serious young man. He’s not a frivolous, light-hearted kid.”

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Nearly recovered from the left ankle sprain that hampered him in training camp, Isaiah Rider turned his right ankle against Denver and was bothered by it afterward.

Rider said he first rolled the ankle during practice Monday, then did it again early in the second quarter. He said he did not believe it was serious.

“I’m just having some bad luck,” he said.

Despite the injury, he had 11 points and a season-high six rebounds in 27 minutes.

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A bone scan taken Tuesday on guard Derek Fisher’s right foot showed normal healing. Doctors told Fisher, who had surgery in mid-September, that a mid-February return to the court remained viable.