Bryant Thinks He’ll Be Ready for Jazz

Kobe Bryant’s return to the Lakers’ starting lineup may have been a disappointment to many because he had to leave after playing only 11 minutes in a 79-78 loss to New York on Sunday. But not to him.

Bryant, who missed all four of his shots and did not score against the Knicks, said his injured left ankle and foot are feeling better, and he plans to play in Tuesday’s game at Utah.

“The movement just set my ankle back a little bit,” said Bryant, who had sat out the Lakers’ previous five games because of the injury. “We’ll have to see how it goes. You have to be patient with my tendon and ligament down there. The left [ankle] is the one that held me back. The right one bothers me a little, but it is not nearly as painful as the other one.”

Bryant said it was difficult trying to defend the Knicks’ Latrell Sprewell in his first game back.

“Sprewell is one of the fastest guys in the league,” Bryant said. “There was a phase there when I was trying to stay in front of him, move my feet, but he stopped on a dime. I stopped and I tried to recover, but I couldn’t and he had an open look. That kind of started it all.”

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For New York, defeating the Lakers was a great way to finish a terrible trip. Heading into Sunday’s game, the Knicks had lost three in a row and four of their last five.

“I don’t know if we played perfect but we played . . . I thought, really hard and really unselfishly,” New York Coach Jeff Van Gundy said. “I just wanted to see us do the two things that we were capable of and that is play really all out and together.”

The Knicks knew they would have a difficult time stopping the Lakers’ Shaquille O’Neal, who finished with 31 points and 11 rebounds. But Van Gundy figured his team would have a chance to do other things to win.

“The difference is when we defend and rebound, we’re going to have a chance to win,” Van Gundy said. “We are the No. 1 defensive team in the league for a reason.”

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The Knicks certainly didn’t mind when Derek Fisher took the Lakers’ final shot of the game instead of O’Neal.

“The key to defeating the Lakers is to shut everybody else down, and I think that’s what we did,” said Marcus Camby, who finished with 20 points and 15 rebounds for New York.

Added former Laker Glen Rice, who finished with seven points off the bench, on Fisher’s final shot: “It wasn’t a good shot. [Charlie Ward] was right in his face. That’s the type of shot that you want them to take at that particular time of the game. From that point on, our job was to box everyone out and get the rebound.”