What’s Their Answer?

Off the stage, out from behind the table, away from the cameras and the microphones, Kobe Bryant stood beside his new car, another Mercedes, clenched his fists and allowed the sunlight into his eyes.

“You know what?” he said. “Playing in the Finals, playing in the NBA, it’s all about facing difficult challenges. For us to come out and respond to the challenge, we’re looking forward to it. We really are. We’ve done it before. This is no different than anything else we’ve done this year. We’re obviously disappointed with how we played. But we’re fine. We’re fine.”

The Lakers are down a game, and a home game at that, to the Philadelphia 76ers. They play Game 2 tonight at Staples Center, and maybe it’s their most important game since they beat Portland in Game 7 of last year’s Western Conference finals.

In the midst of the Lakers’ gleeful romp to postseason history, a series broke out, followed by a hard sweat, followed by a day to consider exactly how their worst playoff game could have showed up at such an inappropriate time.

Bryant made seven shots--and missed 15. He had six turnovers. He looked hopelessly torn between pressing his offensive game and exhaustively advancing the ball through three-quarter-court pressure, and chasing Allen Iverson around all manner of shoulders and hips thrust to deter him.

Still, by Thursday afternoon, the six-point overtime loss felt to him as if it had occurred weeks ago, and he grinned. He couldn’t believe the way his teammates had played, mostly without him, couldn’t believe the grit that carried them through a malaise caused by nine days off, and back from 15 points behind in the third quarter to five points up in the overtime. He could hardly believe their defense after the first 30 minutes, the way Rick Fox banged and Tyronn Lue hounded and Robert Horry pestered.

“I have so much respect for them,” he said. “I always did, but so much more now. I mean, they carried me.”

Of course, they lost too, and the last anyone saw of the 76ers on Wednesday night, they were dancing off the far corner of the Staples Center floor.

“We took the first punch,” Bryant said.

A lot of things went right for a long time for the Lakers, and probably what happens over the next week or so depends on how long they sit on the floor and rub their noses.

At practice Thursday, Coach Phil Jackson scolded them for their 19 turnovers, five in the fourth quarter and overtime, many against Philadelphia’s press. Hoping to stay fresher, the Lakers worked on passing over the 76er press by involving their forwards, or at least rotating the responsibility of advancing the ball through Bryant, Lue and Derek Fisher, critical if the same player is guarding Iverson.

Having someone other than Bryant bring up the ball also frees Bryant from the very physical 76er defense, in the way Iverson gets open by leaving his defender behind screens.

“That’s East Coast basketball,” Laker veteran Ron Harper said. “East Coast basketball has its hands on you, holding you. Kobe’s just got to play. The only thing he has to do is bring his game.”

Twice, Jackson harped at Horry about his offensive foul on Dikembe Mutombo in the overtime, asking Horry to explain again exactly what had occurred, and why.

“We talked a lot about finding ways to hold it together,” Jackson said. “Because it’s not Fish having a bad game, it’s not Kobe not shooting well, Horace [Grant] not having a good defensive game and our defense being a little bit poor. It’s about the team as a group and how we support each other. That’s what makes us good.

“It’s not going to be an individual that does this. It’s going to be a collective group.”

The group now trails in a series for the first time in two years, but hardly seemed bothered. The Lakers were four good games from their fourth sweep of the playoffs, which had never been done, and fouled that too. But that appeared easily dismissed, and practice was loose.

“We actually think it’s pretty fun,” Horry said. “Since we do have the Chicago Bulls’ coach, we’re using one of those Jordan mottoes: ‘The playoffs don’t start until you lose a game.’ Well, the playoffs started. They brought us back down to reality. We were flying really, really high. Now, they kicked our butts. We have to come back to reality and refocus and do the things that got us here. Last game, we got outside of ourselves.”

They’re not perfect. They’re not close. The regular season taught them that, if nothing else. The oddity was not losing to the 76ers in Game 1--that was utterly in character--it was getting so far without a loss.

“Especially on your home court, you expect the ball to bounce your way on your home court,” Horry said. “But the ball bounced their way this time. So, hopefully, good things can happen. Maybe we can stick to history. Guys who have the most rest usually win this thing. Hopefully, we can keep history going.”

In the parking lot, Bryant was thinking less about history and more about matching Philadelphia’s toughness. He squeezed an imaginary basketball so hard that the veins shot up on his forearms.

“We have to be strong with the basketball,” he said. “We just have to be strong.”