Uncertainty Surrounds Bryant

Three days after he called in sick, a day before he would try to go from Los Angeles to Eagle, Colo., and back in time for a basketball game, Kobe Bryant pulled a black knit cap down to his eyebrows and spoke hoarsely.

Over about 10 minutes Thursday morning in which he said, “I don’t know” about a dozen times, Bryant said he could not predict how today’s motions hearing for his sexual assault case would go, and therefore could not predict if he would reach Staples Center in time for tonight’s game against the Denver Nuggets.

“I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know,” he said, pleasantly enough. “Look, man, I don’t know. I’ll go through the process [Friday], no matter how long it takes. Best scenario, I’ll be back to play. But I don’t know.”

Bryant did not appear to have recovered from what team officials called “flu-like symptoms,” which kept him from Monday’s practice. Laker starters and veterans were given Tuesday and Wednesday off.

They returned early Thursday to sign basketballs and other memorabilia, practice and then attend the company Christmas party held upstairs at their El Segundo facility, overlooking the NHL’s Kings on one rink and elfin figure skaters on the other. Bryant, along with many of his teammates, sat behind a long table, scribbling on one basketball after another. Jamal Sampson signed between bites of Corn Flakes, Jannero Pargo with his mouth filled with a breakfast sandwich.

Bryant pressed onward, said he felt “all right,” and tried not to let the questions or thoughts of another trying day in a Colorado courthouse consume him.

“I’ll think about it tomorrow,” he said.

If Bryant, averaging a team-high 22.1 points, were to miss the game, Coach Phil Jackson would choose between Derek Fisher and Kareem Rush at shooting guard. Jackson said he had not spoken to Bryant about the possible scheduling conflict but sounded as though he assumed Bryant could return in time.

“The game’s not ‘til 7:30,” Jackson said.

Asked when he would have to make a decision on Bryant’s availability, Jackson said, “7:30,” leaving open the possibility Bryant could fly, sit through a day in court, fly again, skirt Friday evening traffic and then arrive in their locker room emotionally prepared to play the Nuggets.

“Listen,” Jackson said. “He knows [Nugget guard] Voshon Lenard. Voshon Lenard got 20 points off us in the second half of a game a couple years ago. He certainly remembers that.”

Laker management had hoped the Bryant case would be assigned a court date and then disappear until trial, but its effect on their season has lingered. After today, another motions hearing is scheduled for Jan. 23.

“We realize the situation,” Karl Malone said. “We support Kobe. We’ll go out and prepare. If he’s not there, fine, other guys have to pick it up. It’s part of it. We’re not going to dwell on it.... This thing is more important than basketball.”

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The Lakers returned to practice still gnawing on 222 points allowed in two games, both losses, over the weekend, and with the offensively potent Nuggets in town.

While the lapses were everywhere, Dallas and Portland frequently sought and took advantage of their Devean George matchup. That is, George against Dirk Nowitzki on Friday, George against Rasheed Wallace on Saturday.

George, who is 6 feet 8, gives up four inches to Nowitzki and three to Wallace, and both were quick to bring George into the post.

While Jackson granted the size differential and the difficulty in trying to stop either player, he did not give George a pass on the assignments.

The alternative, he said, was to “put Devean on the bench and put somebody else out there that can deal with it, or find a way to deal with it. That’s how you do it.”

There were other issues.

Guard Damon Stoudamire scored 25 points for the Trail Blazers, nearly twice his season’s average. Guards Steve Nash and Josh Howard combined for 40 points for the Mavericks.

After a stretch in which they allowed more than 99 points only once in 10 games, all wins, the Lakers were slow to defend and slower to reach loose balls and defensive rebounds.

“Maybe we’ve had a false sense of security that Shaq’s going to be back there all the time,” Malone said of center Shaquille O’Neal. “He can’t be everywhere.”

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TONIGHT

vs. Denver, 7:30, Fox Sports Net

Site -- Staples Center.

Radio -- KLAC (570), KWKW (1330).

Records -- Lakers 18-5, Nuggets 16-9.

Record vs. Nuggets (2002-03) -- 4-0.

Update -- The Nuggets are in a virtual tie with San Antonio and Minnesota for first place in the Midwest Division, 25 games into a season that was supposed to have left them behind by now. But rookie Carmelo Anthony is averaging 18.5 points (shooting 38.6%), Lenard, Andre Miller and Earl Boykins are a worthy backcourt, Marcus Camby is talking contract extension and Nene -- just Nene -- is shooting better than 54%. The Nuggets have won nine of 12 games and scored more than 110 points four times in December alone. They had not scored 110 points since the 2000-01 season.