All Talk

Kobe Bryant didn’t watch the final game of the Eastern Conference finals until Phil Jackson pressed the “play” button on Monday afternoon, not that the Laker star guard wasn’t interested on Sunday.

If he’s going to win seven NBA titles, or one more than Michael Jordan did, as is his plan, every trip to the finals looks critical, even for a bulletproof 22-year-old. But, Bryant figured there would be time enough for a painted point guard and a center with a pterodactyl wingspan, and the rest of the Philadelphia 76ers, whom he has seen often enough.

“I looked at it as being my last day off,” he said, smiling, two days before Wednesday, when his team tips off the NBA Finals at Staples Center.

Good thing the Lakers had nine days between series, because Bryant saw “Pearl Harbor,” and just barely got it in. Then he threw himself into the 76ers, and into the ever-growing, camera-lugging phalanx that descends upon Nash Street in El Segundo about this time, and into the questions of his role in relation to Allen Iverson, and Iverson’s to him.

These NBA Finals already have become a story of the superbly talented, arrogant--George Karl’s word--Lakers against the determined little band of 76ers, the little team that could, riding the little point guard who could, all for the little coach who could.

The Lakers do find it amusing that the underdogs roll into town with the most valuable player, defensive player of the year, sixth man and coach of the year. But the Lakers are the ones on the 19-0 run, the historic 11-0 playoff run, so they should probably keep the protestations to themselves.

“We don’t have a copyright on sweeps,” Rick Fox said. “We joked about that over the week here. But, we’re playing selfless basketball. I think we’re playing the way Phil envisioned we would play sooner or later. We know Shaq and Kobe are driving this thing. As for the rest of us, we just keep our hands and feet in the car and enjoy this opportunity to win a championship again.

“We’ve definitely come in here today with a different mind-set. Playing a team such as Philadelphia will do that to you. It puts everyone on edge, makes everyone as focused as you can be.”

The finals also are about the moments that will stop the series, when Iverson stands at the top of the key, eye to eye with Bryant, eight men along the baseline, all curious too. And, when Bryant stutter-steps on the wing, Iverson before him and desperately trying not to lean, eight men along the baseline, all curious too.

It hardly seems to matter that Derek Fisher, the Laker defender who takes the best charge in the game, probably will draw many of the early minutes on Iverson. Or, that Jackson proclaimed Monday that the series more likely will turn on Shaquille O’Neal versus Dikembe Mutombo and on Coach Larry Brown’s defensive strategy against O’Neal.

Iverson and Bryant are the glitz.

“He knows how to score,” Bryant said. “You can talk about his height. You can talk about his quickness, or whatever. But, he knows how to score. There are a lot of players in the league who don’t know how to use it. He knows how to use it very, very well.”

Iverson’s 31.1-point average led the league and, at 6 feet, he became the shortest MVP. Then he averaged 32.1 points in 18 playoff games before the finals, getting 44 Sunday, when the 76ers could not lose.

While the world desperately wants Iverson versus Bryant, which is exactly how it played out in the regular season, when they took turns torching each other, the Lakers downplayed the possibility. Fisher will get a lot of Iverson. The Lakers like Bryant on the ball, just as he was on Terry Porter in the San Antonio series, and as he probably will be on Eric Snow and Aaron McKie in this series.

“We’ll use him both in disrupting play and playing Iverson,” Jackson said. “[Bryant] will have both responsibilities during the course of the series. We have matchup situations and they do too, that are to their advantage and we’ll see how that plays out.”

The Lakers and 76ers played twice in the regular season. While defending each other almost exclusively, Bryant scored 36 in the first and Iverson scored 40 in the second.

“It’s always been about a collective effort,” Bryant insisted. “Allen is obviously a great scorer. He’s the MVP of the league, so you just try to make him work a little bit for what he gets. The major thing is about us executing offensively and defensively and doing things we need to do to win.”

The addition of Fisher changes a lot. Recuperating from a stress fracture in his foot, Fisher missed both Philadelphia games. He gives Jackson an alternative to simply assigning Bryant to Iverson.

“That puts me starting off on Allen in the first quarter, which is not a big difference,” Fisher said. “It’s a 48-minute game. We did some good things against the Spurs by starting Kobe on Terry Porter and myself on Antonio Daniels. Now the matchups are more traditional, which doesn’t necessarily favor us, but will allow us to do the things we normally like to do.”

The Lakers haven’t done much of anything lately. They haven’t played since May 27. That time off has allowed O’Neal to rest his mildly sprained left ankle, and some of the veterans appear a bit more spry. Beyond that, the good news Monday was a real, live opponent, even if it had to be Iverson and a team that has begun to count destiny on its side.

“I could tell today, including myself, there was a different focus about what we were doing, because we know the individuals and we know the team we’re matching up against,” Fisher said. “It brings you to a different place. . . . So, today was a much better day than last week.”

That all works out pretty well for Bryant, who didn’t have anything else planned for this week anyway.

“It feels good,” he said. “The execution is back. . . . Our heads looked into it, so we should be fine.”