Something Compares to Him

Kobe Bryant can fight it all he wants, but those who spent time with Michael Jordan in Chicago--Horace Grant, Phil Jackson, Steve Kerr, Tex Winter--know what they see.

“I can see why people make the comparison,” said Winter, Jackson’s assistant with the Bulls. “There is an awful lot of likeness in their style of play. At the same time, Michael is Michael and I don’t think there’ll ever be another one, and Kobe’s Kobe. Kobe has to strive for his own identity, which I think he’s doing.”

It would be easier if the “M” word didn’t arise every time Bryant scored 45 points, as he did in Game 1 Saturday night. Or every time he dunked over Tim Duncan. Or over David Robinson. Or snapped in a fade-away from 19 feet.

“He used to just go, go, go,” Kerr said. “As soon as he got the ball he was going to go. Now he’s kind of waiting for things to develop. His sense of timing from a team standpoint is better. Yeah, he’s the closest thing to MJ I’ve ever seen. MJ didn’t have Shaq to work with, which makes what he did even more impressive. But the comparisons are natural.”

Bryant scored 13 points in the fourth quarter, 28 in the second half, which sold Kerr.

“Teams start to come back, make a run, especially on their home court, and man he just sucks the air out of the place,” Kerr said of Bryant. “Everybody has to be the next somebody. I don’t know. Kobe’s himself. That’s good enough, isn’t it?”

*

The Lakers don’t expect to get to the rim as often as they did in Game 1, which could mean more shots for their perimeter players.

Though the Lakers made seven of 14 three-point shots Saturday, the Spurs probably will play to stop Bryant before he gets too deep in the lane.

“It depends on how much they perceive their situation as desperate,” Laker forward Rick Fox said. “I don’t think it’s a desperate situation for them. They responded well after losses . . . during the year. We’re going to be composed as we can be. A win like we got in the first game is what we focused on doing. We accomplished that goal, but, to tell you the honest truth, we came to get two.”