Chapter 4

By TIM BROWN

June 13, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

PHILADELPHIA —

Kobe Bryant stood on the left wing Tuesday, 30 feet from one of the rims at the Spectrum, shooting jump shots.

A white T-shirt hung from his shoulders as if it were pinned to a clothesline, and yet his stroke was effortless and true as he answered questions about tonight’s Game 4 of the NBA Finals, which the Lakers will play hoping to widen a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

He snapped his wrist and answered methodically until, from his right, a question arose that caught his attention: “If you win . . . , does that effectively end the series?”

The basketball cocked in his right hand, Bryant hesitated, then stopped shooting. He smiled for a moment and cast his eyes playfully away. The Lakers haven’t lost three in a row since Phil Jackson became their coach before last season. There was a chuckle from behind him, and he joined in.

Then he launched the jumper, back to work.

“I don’t know,” he said. “What we’ve been doing a good job of is staying in the moment.”

Not long before, in a crowded interview room, Bryant was reminded of a scene two nights earlier, shortly after the Lakers had beaten the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 3. Bryant was booed all game. He occasionally rolled his eyes at hecklers behind the Laker bench. He ignored the disrespectful chants. Afterward, in a tunnel leading to the bus that would take the Lakers to their hotel, a 76er fan shouted the usual.

Bryant nodded and said, “We’re going to cut your hearts out on Wednesday.”

Asked if the conversation had gone like that, Bryant said, “Yeah, it did.”

When there was a murmur, he said, “What? I’m honest.”

Onward and, well, downward go the NBA Finals, which resume after two days of matchmaking, quotation analysis and various physical and psychological therapy. The town seems no less enamored of its basketball team, despite the series deficit. The 76ers trailed in each of their three previous playoff series, are a combined 12-9 in the playoffs, and still are a couple of home victories from putting a scare back into the Lakers.

“Been down before,” 76er guard Allen Iverson said, “with no way to come back and win the series. We just feel like, regardless of what happened to us, we could turn things around. Everything’s been hard for us. Nothing’s been easy for us. So, we stop asking, ‘Why is this happening? Why did this happen? Why does this keep happening?’ That’s the way it’s supposed to be, I guess. Don’t matter.”

The Lakers seem to think they’ve gotten their games back, after disjointed play in the first three games, the result of a nine-day layoff and a spirited 76er defense. They remained tentative against the 76ers’ run-and-jump pressure, but they covered that again in Tuesday’s practice and privately wonder how long the undermanned 76ers can sustain that effort.

They watched film before practice. The theme was handling Philadelphia’s three-quarter-court pressure and spacing their offense. The rest, they assumed, will find its natural level. It’s a little late to cram now.

“It’s more about our basketball team,” Laker guard Ron Harper said.

Barring a new development--possible, and even likely, in the ever-evolving, ever-sniping Finals--the series is turning on a handful of events and associations.

They are:

* Shaquille O’Neal versus Dikembe Mutombo.

* Bryant versus the hometown that acts as if it detests him.

* Iverson versus the defender before him.

* Real life versus the referees.

Back on the stand, O’Neal was light and humorous for a second day, and Mutombo defended his defense again.

Bryant appeared more casual still, a trend that suggests the weight of a tumultuous regular season is only now lifting from his slight shoulders.

Iverson spent part of the afternoon in a golf cart, terrorizing reporters and teammates, shouting for them to make way, at one point prompting teammate Aaron McKie, who has a chip fracture in one ankle, to run to safety.

And everyone pretty much ignored the potential impact of the referees, who regularly missed calls in Game 3, ultimately benefiting both clubs, and neither. Most artfully agreed the officials have a difficult job and left it at that.

O’Neal would seem to have the most to lose, since he has averaged nearly five fouls in three games and fouled out of Sunday’s game. The matchup between him and Mutombo has become increasingly physical, predictably so, and the question tonight is whether Mutombo will become more aggressive in response to O’Neal’s charge that he flops. O’Neal again pleaded his case.

“I don’t really offensive foul,” he said. “I look like I throw my elbows to clear people out of the way. I’m a strong player. When you have two hands, a knee in my back, trying to push through, I have to use all my strength to pull it through.

“Dikembe is a great player, and of course I respect his game. You know, it’s nothing but us trying to bring the ratings up even higher. We’re going to go out--he’s a classy individual, I’m a classy individual. It’s just going to be two warriors going at it.”

Meantime, Mutombo’s scoring has increased in each game, from 13 points to 16 to 23, the last matching his playoff high.

“Shaquille’s going to have to deal with that,” Phil Jackson said. “And, yet, the ability of Dikembe to get the offensive foul called has been very effective, especially in the last game, in neutralizing Shaquille’s ability.

“I think that happens a lot of times in series--the individual matchups become a matter of game-by-game situations that players adjust to. They learn to dance with the player they’re playing against. Then it becomes a difficult thing.”

Added Jackson: “I worry for Dikembe. I have a little sign on the board that says, ‘Deke leads with his beak.’ He’s getting his face beat up a little bit by sticking his face in there, yet it’s part of what gets him the offensive fouls.”

Few seem particularly interested in the aesthetics of tonight’s basketball, given all of the groping and slashing going on. The early themes of the 76ers vying for respect, and the Lakers summoning the game that got them here, haven’t changed.

“For us, it’s not about the respect,” Bryant said. “It’s not what people say. It’s about winning the game.”

Mutombo said that simply can’t happen.

“We need it so bad,” he said. “We don’t want to look at ourselves on Thursday morning and be [down] 3-1.”

The thought alone would give Bryant pause.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE SERIES

Best of seven;

Lakers lead series, 2-1

Game 1--June 6

* Philadelphia 107, Lakers 101, OT

Game 2--June 8

* Lakers 98, Philadelphia 89