In Clutch, Bryant Goes for the Throat

Kobe Bryant made a fourth-quarter three-point basket on the right wing Tuesday night and passed his right thumb across his throat, a gesture the NBA hates, one he rarely -- if ever -- has made.

Not his style, really, and perhaps it wasn’t as much to finish the Atlanta Hawks, though it did, as to celebrate the return of his jump shot, which had been missing for a week or so.

“I was scratching my neck,” he said.

The Lakers beat the Hawks, 108-91, at Philips Arena, decisively after a grim first half. Grinding on a knee that’s sore or not depending on when and whom you ask, Bryant made six consecutive shots in the fourth quarter, five of them long jumpers, and the Hawks went away.

Shaquille O’Neal scored 31 points in 32 minutes. He sat out the final quarter, 12 minutes of rest he’ll take into tonight’s game against the Houston Rockets and Yao Ming. The release on O’Neal’s shot was sticky, but he scored at will around the basket against Theo Ratliff and whoever came next, and when he sat for good the Lakers had turned a three-point deficit into a 10-point lead in 10 minutes.

“I haven’t had that luxury in a while,” O’Neal said of his bench time, grateful that another uninspired first half had led, for a change, to a dynamic second. “I wasn’t afraid. That’s how we do it. We haven’t been known to blow out teams by 30 or 40. We have to get warmed up. Sometimes we get warmed up; sometimes we don’t.”

O’Neal, the Lakers knew about. He’d come along game by game since he took three games off six weeks ago, and now he is as quick to the baseline and to the rim as he was at any time last season, including the postseason.

Bryant is the player who has worried Phil Jackson in recent weeks, Bryant’s knee swelling without warning, so much so that the Laker coach has floated the idea of resting Bryant for a game, a half, a quarter, whatever Bryant would allow. Then Bryant reached halftime three for nine from the field, his jumpers still short and flat or long and crooked, and his man, Ira Newble, six for six from the field.

“I told him it was a tempting proposition,” Bryant said after a short conversation with Jackson. “If he would have come to me three games earlier, I would have said yes. But now, the past three games my knee’s been feeling great, I haven’t been feeling any pain. So, no.”

In the past 3 1/2 games, Bryant had made 30 of 80 shots, only three weeks after his jump shot helped carry him through one of the great scoring months in NBA history. Then, as quickly as it left him, the ball came dependably from his fingertips again. In the fourth quarter, with the Lakers leading by 11 and Jackson hoping to leave O’Neal on the bench, Bryant started on his run, a 16-footer followed by a tomahawk breakaway dunk followed by a 21-footer followed by three three-pointers.

At 95-76, Bryant made his non-slash slash, soothing his itchy throat.

“There was a guy on that sideline talking a lot,” one of Bryant’s teammates observed.

If Bryant, who scored 15 of his 28 points in the last 12 minutes, was pleased to have his jumper back, even for a quarter, he chose not to express it.

Even in the worst of slumps, Bryant said, “I expect them to go. It means nothing to me.... It’s the God honest truth. I feel great no matter how many shots I missed.”

They drove the Lakers to a 60-point half, to their 40th win, which was enough for them.

The crowd, the Hawks’ first legitimate sellout of the season, came to see O’Neal and Bryant and cheered their introductions, then booed when Mark Madsen’s shot at the halftime buzzer was ruled late by instant replay.

“The fans will be happy,” Bryant said, grinning, “when they get back their money.”

The Hawks had guaranteed a playoff berth to their season-ticket holders. Still, for a team that has never challenged in the soft Eastern Conference, the Hawks have been surprisingly proficient at home, having won 21 of 34 before Tuesday.

They pushed the Lakers for a half, but that was all, and the Lakers won for the third time in their last eight games away from Staples Center. It wasn’t easy, and they often make it like that, and most of them looked weary later.

“Just playing the game,” said Derek Fisher, who had five steals and five assists in the third quarter and scored 12 points. “That’s all.”

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Lakers’ Dozen

The Lakers are currently in seventh place in the Western Conference with 12 games left in the regular season. The schedule:

*--* DATE GAME TIME, TV Today at Houston 6 p.m., Ch. 9* Friday Washington 7:30 p.m., FSN Sunday at Seattle 6 p.m., Ch. 9 Monday Memphis 7:30 p.m., FSN April 3 at Dallas 6:30 p.m., Ch. 9 April 4 at Memphis 5 p.m., Ch. 9 April 6 Phoenix 6:30 p.m., FSN April 8 Dallas 7:30 p.m., FSN April 10 Sacramento 7 p.m., TNT April 13 at Portland 12:30 p.m., Ch. 7 April 15 Denver 7:30 p.m., FSN April 16 at Golden St 7:30 p.m., Ch. 9

*--*

*also shown nationally on ESPN