Bryant Nurses a New Injury

Guard Kobe Bryant suffered a strained left ankle on the final play of Sunday night’s game in Indiana.

Club officials said they expected Bryant to play tonight against the Dallas Mavericks, although the league’s second-leading scorer did not practice Monday at Reunion Arena and appeared to be limping.

“I’m sure he’ll play [tonight],” Coach Phil Jackson said. “I don’t know what his status is. But, he didn’t complain about it after the game. . . . He got on the elevator with me. He’s fine.”

Bryant refused to speak to reporters after practice, other than to say the pain was in “a whole ‘nother spot,” than the left ankle sprain he suffered during last season’s NBA finals.

Bryant scored 33 points in Sunday’s dismal 110-109 loss to the Pacers, but missed his last shot, from the corner. According to Laker officials, Bryant said he injured the ankle landing after that shot, or perhaps earlier in the fourth quarter, when Reggie Miller stepped on his foot.

While his teammates practiced, Bryant sat on the side, a bag of ice on his ankle.

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Jackson dealt again with a J.R. Rider uprising, this time a mix of stomach ache and playing-time frustration that revealed itself in Rider’s leaving the court for about 15 minutes in the third quarter Sunday.

Rider was at practice Monday and is expected to play tonight.

“We took care of that internally,” Jackson said.

On a team that appears to have an aversion to defense, Rider has been singled out for what Jackson perceives as defensive deficiencies. But, Jackson said, he merely needed to stop Jalen Rose from scoring.

“He just has to be on the team in that regard,” Jackson said. “Whatever I have to do as a basketball coach, I have to do. That has to be part of his acceptance.”

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Dallas Coach Don Nelson returns tonight after having missed 21 games because of prostate cancer surgery. The last time the Lakers were in town, Shaquille O’Neal called him a clown, and Nelson said he thought O’Neal was more mature than that.

Well, all is forgiven, and Nelson even sounded apologetic about his fouling tactics against O’Neal.

“I don’t call it Hack-a-Shaq,” Nelson said. “We’re not hacking him. We’re just fouling him very gently. We don’t want to get the big fella angry. We certainly wouldn’t want to hurt anybody. We don’t want to put him on the line with hard fouls. In different parts of the game when we’re in the bonus situation, we’ll tell the referee we want to foul him and put him on the line to shot free throws.”

O’Neal is 34 for 62 (54.8%) from the line in his last four games.

TONIGHT

at Dallas, 5:30 PST

Channel 9

* Site--Reunion Arena.

* Radio--KLAC (570).

* Records--Lakers 33-18, Mavericks 33-20.

* Record vs. Mavericks--2-0.

* Update--The Lakers beat the Mavericks, 99-97, on Dec. 3 in L.A. and, 108-103, on Dec. 22 in Dallas. The Mavericks have won five in succession at home, but are only 3-5 in front of home sellouts.