Players Adjust to Bryant

More than a month after they gathered in Honolulu, while they played and Kobe Bryant rehabilitated, while they practiced and Bryant ran alongside best he could, it remains the rest of the Lakers’ duty to fit their game around his, Coach Phil Jackson said Saturday.

While the basketball world wondered how Bryant would look among Shaquille O’Neal, Karl Malone and Gary Payton, Jackson wondered how they’d look around him.

“It’s going to be their adjustment to him,” he said, “because with our offense, it’s a timing offense predicated on timing as much as it is on movement of the ball. The ball continues to move. And Kobe’s going to look for opportunities to score. He’s going to abbreviate at times and take advantage of people he believes he can score on. So players are going to have to adjust and allow him space and allow him the liberty to do that.”

Bryant, not yet recovered from knee surgery, made four of 12 shots in 37 minutes against the Phoenix Suns, in a 103-99 victory, and the offense was spread again.

O’Neal had 24 points in 39 minutes. He said he’d find his way around Bryant, around all of them, if necessary. Several times against the Suns, he’d reach the offensive end of the floor, only to find Malone already there, in the post. O’Neal went directly to the weak side.

“He’s one of the greatest low-post players ever to play the game,” O’Neal said afterward. “My thing is to stay out of his way. And if he shoots and misses I just have to get the rebound. Period.”

O’Neal, who had gone through so many power forwards in his time in Los Angeles, clearly is delighting to have Malone as a wing man, or vice versa.

“If I’ve got two guys on me and I see Karl by himself,” he said, “I think it would be a better percentage shot for him rather than me trying to force it up all the time.”

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Bryon Russell, who last played with Malone two seasons ago, said Malone, at 40, is quite possibly working harder now than when he was in Utah.

On Monday night, in his last hours of training camp, Malone sat in a dark gym in El Segundo and rode a stationary bike. All of his teammates were gone.

On Thursday, an end-of-practice scrimmage concluded with the losing team running more sprints that the winning team. Malone, wearing winning yellow, ran all of the sprints.

“I’ll rest when I retire,” Malone said. “I don’t know, after making these sacrifices, I’m just going to lay it all out there. When I’m done, I’ll be done. I just felt like I needed more, that’s all.”

Asked if he would pace himself, if he even could given his age and tonight’s game against Golden State at Staples Center, Malone laughed.

“Pace?” he half-shouted. “What’s that? That’s NASCAR.”

Meanwhile, he said, “Tonight, I’ll worry about what this game requires. Tomorrow, I’ll think about what that game requires.”

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The Lakers’ average age is 28.78 years. Only the Sacramento Kings and New Orleans Hornets are older.... The Lakers (O’Neal and Bryant) and Phoenix Suns (Stephon Marbury and Shawn Marion) were the only teams to have two players average more than 21 points per game last season.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

THE FIRST 10

*--* RESULTS W-L VS. DALLAS W 109-93 AT PHOENIX W 103-99 THE REST *W-L GOLDEN STATE, TONIGHT 2-2 AT MILWAUKEE, TUE. 2-0 AT SAN ANTONIO, THU. 0-4 AT NEW ORLEANS, FRI. 1-1 AT MEMPHIS, NOV. 10 4-0 TORONTO, NOV. 12 2-0 DETROIT, NOV. 14 1-1 MIAMI, NOV. 16 1-1

*--*

* Records against team last season

HOW THEY COMPARE

2003-04 statistics (before Saturday):

*--* Lakers Opp. Points/game 109.0 93.0 Reb/game 46.0 46.0 Assists/game 32.0 17.0 Field goal % 50.6 37.6 3-pts/game 7-20 7-25 3-pts % 35.0 28.0 FT/game 12-20 22-30 FT % 60.0 73.3 Fouls/game 28.0 21.0 Steals/game 7.0 4.0 TO/game 10.0 11.0 Blocks/game 6.0 1.0

*--*

LEADERS

TOP SCORERS

*--* SHAQUILLE O’NEAL 1 game GARY PAYTON 1 game TOP REBOUNDERS KARL MALONE 2 games SHAQUILLE O’NEAL 1 game DEVEAN GEORGE 1 game

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TOPS IN ASSISTS

*--* GARY PAYTON 2 games KARL MALONE 1 game

*--*

THE BIG FOUR

*--* PTS REB AST 24 12 3 PLUS/MINUS VS. JAKE VOSKUHL +18 +8 +2

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*--* PTS REB AST 15 6 4 PLUS/MINUS VS. JOE JOHNSON -5 -1 +1

*--*

*--* PTS REB AST 18 12 2 PLUS/MINUS VS. AMARE STOUDEMIRE +5 +6 +2

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*--* PTS REB AST 19 4 9 PLUS/MINUS VS. STEPHON MARBURY -7 +2 -2

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