Bryant Shows Second Nature

Gosh, Mom (yawn), is it April already?

Developing momentum in their inimitable style -- belatedly and improbably -- the Lakers won their fourth game in a row and third this month, coming from nine points behind in the third quarter, catching the Phoenix Suns on Kobe Bryant’s 15-footer with 14 seconds left in regulation and winning, 115-113, on Bryant’s 21-footer with 28 seconds left in overtime Sunday night at Staples Center.

The Lakers thus clinched a playoff berth, which actually once seemed in doubt when they started 11-19, and they took sole possession of the No. 6 position in the West, marking the zenith to date of their third title defense.

Everyone else tries to shore up their games. True to their nature, the Lakers are working on their theatrics.

In their last game, at Memphis, they trailed by 23 in the fourth quarter before rallying to win on Bryant’s last-second shot.

At the end of Sunday’s first half, Kobe faked Casey Jacobsen into the air on a long jumper, drew a foul and made two free throws.

Then at the end of the third period, Bryant faked Shawn Marion in the air, banged in a 20-footer, was fouled and completed the three-point play.

Bryant wound up with 26 points, 17 of which were relatively routine, the other nine coming on last-second shots.

Said Bryant, nonplused as always: “It’s what I do.”

Ask around. It’s what he does.

“I mean, he’s done it his whole career,” said Phoenix Coach Frank Johnson. “Vintage Kobe.”

It was vintage Kobe, certainly, but as Laker Coach Phil Jackson noted, Bryant also had seven turnovers to go with Shaquille O’Neal’s six. The team had 20, which was why the Lakers shot 52.9% but still found themselves fighting from behind for most of the night.

Then there was their defense. When the Suns weren’t scoring on fastbreaks, it seemed as if they were scoring out of their half-court offense with Stephon Marbury going for 40 points, most of them on high, arching jumpers, and not because, as Jackson noted, “They let him carry the basketball and run with it.”

Jackson started the night with a good feeling about his team.

“Oh, I think we’ve developed some momentum,” he said before the game. “We played a lot of games in the drudgery of the season, if you want to put it like that.... And the players are starting to feel their way through it and be more active, more aggressive....

“We started this about a week and a half ago, about prepping for the playoffs and being more responsive and more responsible in both areas of defense and turnovers and good shots and things like that and those type of things.”

This must have been one of those famous Laker lulls, then, like the months of November and December.

The Lakers hit 10 of their first 12 shots and still led by only 32-30 at the end of the first quarter, which should have let them know what they were up against: themselves as much as the Suns.

“I don’t know,” sighed Jackson afterward. “I just kept telling the guys they have to play with some passion. This is when you start lifting that level of energy you put into it, and emotion.

“It drew a lot of emotion out of us, this game, but we couldn’t play at that level early enough in the ballgame. We had to wait until we were down in the third quarter to start getting that energy.”

The Suns carried a 104-99 lead into the last two minutes of regulation but the Lakers caught up on Devean George’s three-pointer and his two free throws on the next trip.

Joe Johnson hit a 17-footer to make it 106-104. Bryant hit his 15-turnaround on the baseline over Johnson to send it into overtime.

The Lakers led, 113-109, but the Suns tied it in the last 1:33 on Amare Stoudemire’s jumper and Marbury’s free throws.

With 28 seconds left, Bryant knocked in his piece de resistance of this night, a 21-footer over Marion that turned out to be the game-winner.

“You make a lot out of wins and you overdo the losses,” said Jackson, “but there’s nothing like wins to generate winning.”

Bryant said later this is “my job.” As he says in the commercial, he loves his job.