Bryant Unsure of All-Star Game

Holding his car door between reporters and himself Saturday afternoon, Kobe Bryant tried to smile.

Sometimes it came.

More often it was no more than a head tilt and a grunt. His eyes looked dull behind his amber sunglasses and his shoulders rolled forward. He appeared thin and tired, as if the daily annoyance of this tender right shoulder was too much to fight in everyday life and in NBA life. He would have to pick one.

“I’m feeling pretty beat up, pretty sore,” Bryant said.

The night before he scored 44 points. In the last four games, all without Shaquille O’Neal, he averaged 37 points. He took 25 shots a game. And, if this all looked too one-dimensional, then what about the nine rebounds and career-high five blocks and aggressive defense he also laid on the Charlotte Hornets on Friday?

Bryant conceded the only thing between him and a healthy second half of the season is some rest. While the Lakers play only once between today’s game against Sacramento and a Feb. 13 game at New Jersey, Bryant is expected in Washington next weekend for the NBA All-Star game.

Brace yourself, David Stern: Bryant might not play. He hasn’t decided.

“We’ll see how I feel,” he said. “The All-Star game isn’t as important to me as benefiting this team in the second leg of the season, especially because we have that tough trip coming up. So, if I need to rest in order to benefit this team in the second half of the season, then that’s what I’m going to do.”

If Bryant played right up to the All-Star game and then sat out that game, Stern might not understand. He’s already lost O’Neal, and he’s threatened others with fines and suspensions for not participating.

“I’ll take the fine,” Bryant said. “If I have to do that to help this team in the second half, I have no problem with that.”

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Bryant took 30 shots against Charlotte. Judging by the postgame locker room, where most of Bryant’s teammates counted their shots on one hand, some of them aloud, only the final score softened a potential Kobe backlash.

“As long as we won,” Rick Fox said. “We won with Kobe scoring 44 points [Friday] night. If we wouldn’t have won, that would have been the great debate.”

More than anyone, Fox tries to understand Bryant’s occasional excesses.

“It’s admirable because it’s fearless basketball,” Fox said. “He’s willing to accept the criticism as well as the praise.

“[But] it is frustrating at times. I say to him, ‘Kobe, we could make this easier on you. We’d like to think you trust and respect us to let us help you.’ He trusts himself sometimes more than he trusts us.”

It is one thing, of course, to beat Charlotte by himself, and another to beat Sacramento. On Nov. 16, when the Lakers won in Sacramento, Bryant had 31 points and 10 rebounds and O’Neal had 33 points and 16 rebounds. The Kings were without injured Chris Webber.

“A team like Sacramento, one guy isn’t going to be able to beat a team like that,” Horace Grant said. “When Kobe gets double-teamed, he has to pass the ball.”

Rather than soften his game, however, Bryant said he preferred his teammates bring their games to his.

“We just have to be more aggressive as far as getting to the basket,” Bryant said. “We expect Horace to be more aggressive offensively. The way Sacramento plays defense, Chris Webber is geared toward helping guys out. When I beat them off the dribble, Webber’s there, Vlade [Divac] is there. Horace is going to have a lot of looks.”

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Previously conservative in their estimations of Derek Fisher’s return to the court, the Lakers are allowing themselves to believe he could be back in early March. Fisher, recovering from a stress fracture in his foot, had hoped to play Feb. 23. A week or two later is more realistic. . . . J.R. Rider, late to Friday’s shoot-around because of a flat tire, drove through the parking lot Saturday with two flat tires on his sport utility vehicle.

TODAY

vs. Sacramento

12:30 p.m., Ch. 4

* Site--Staples Center.

* Radio--KLAC (570).

* Records--Lakers 29-16, Kings 31-12.

* Record vs. Kings--1-0.

* Update--The Kings come from a lot of offensive angles, from Chris Webber (27.1 points, 11.7 rebounds) to Peja Stojakovic (19.6 points, 6.1 rebounds) to three others--Doug Christie, Jason Williams and Vlade Divac--scoring in double figures.

* Tickets--(800) 462-2849.