Laker Win Is the Stuff of Legend

Kobe Bryant smiled in spite of himself Sunday night, and the Laker bench laughed with him.

Bryant had seen it before, usually from above, on the giving end. Lamar Odom had taken him off the dribble, from the right side, drew him in and dunked on him. It was well into the fourth quarter, the game had been won for an hour, and Gary Payton and Shaquille O’Neal good-naturedly dogged Bryant from the bench.

Bryant laughed. He’d hounded Odom for long stretches of the Lakers’ 99-77 victory over the Miami Heat, and Odom was hardly a factor in his return to Staples Center. No Heat player had been.

Near the end of a game fractured by 70 free throws, a game in which he would score 15 of his 27 points from the free-throw line, Bryant would take the dunk in the spirit it was given, these moments unavoidable given enough of an NBA career and a sedentary summer.

“Lamar’s just long man,” Bryant said. “Pretty funny, though.”

In the postgame locker room, O’Neal walked past, took one last look in the seven-foot mirror near Bryant, and then caught Bryant’s eye. He grinned again. Couldn’t help himself.

“They were talking that trash,” Bryant said, nodding. “They had their things to say. But, they don’t know I have a photographic memory. I can go back to 1992.”

“Aw, bring that up to them ... “ O’Neal protested.

Bryant turned pretend computer dials and shouted, “I can program it and bring it back. But you know what? It was a good play by him and we had a good time with it. I’m sure they’ll rib me about it for another week or so.”

When O’Neal raises Lamar Odom, Bryant will have his ammunition. He’d already mentioned 1992.

“I don’t know,” O’Neal said. “I don’t remember.”

But Bryant had remembered ...

“I don’t know what happened,” O’Neal said, deadpan.

Pressed, it rushed back to him.

“Coleman, I think. Yeah, Derrick Coleman,” he said. “However, I’ve been in the league 11 years and only got dunked on twice. Which is a helluva ratio.”

So, Coleman and ...

“[Michael] Jordan,” he said. “Coleman and Jordan. That’s it.”

They’d all been there before, under the dunk, arms waving, helpless, cameras whirring.

“He got bap-tized,” O’Neal said. “Whew.”

What could he do? Bryant is still down at least 15 pounds, still physically not close to what he’d like to be in a month. While O’Neal (five fouls, sore left knee), Karl Malone (sore hamstring) and Payton (resting) sat out most of the last quarter, Bryant toiled away, refusing to give Odom even an inch, finding Jamal Sampson for a layup, grinding to the front of the rim.

The Lakers recorded their 20th consecutive regular-season home victory, despite missing all nine of their three-point tries, despite 17 turnovers, despite short minutes for three of their four superstars. The reason: The Heat was as bad as advertised. Miami missed all 12 of its three-pointers, shot 55.9% from the free-throw line and 36.3% from the field.

In their Sunday whites, the Lakers streamed to the free-throw line between alley-oops for O’Neal (14 points, two for eight from the line), pull-ups for Payton (13 points and eight assists, 11 and six in the first quarter) and TV airtime for Danny Crawford and the officiating crew.

The free throws accumulated and the crowd squirmed and the excitement seeped from the building, as the Lakers led by 16 points in the first quarter, 17 in the second and 26 in the third.

That pretty much left the interest to Bryant, playing himself into the season with 18 second-half minutes and 13 second-half points.

“Kobe can play,” Odom said. “Kobe’s 50% is some guys’ 100%. He’s a great ballplayer and he’s just getting into his groove. It’s easier because he’s got Hall of Famers surrounding him. He can cruise ... until he needs it, and then he goes.”

For the curious: Is Bryant getting acclimated to his new body or is he rebuilding his old body?

“That’s a good question,” Phil Jackson said.

“Day by day, I continue to get better, I continue to get stronger,” Bryant said. “I’m getting my speed back, my acceleration. That’ll come in time.”

It doesn’t always look so distant, either.

In the second quarter, Bryant was trapped near the lane’s left elbow, surrounded by the second team, defended by Tyrone Hill, having picked up his dribble.

So he squirmed to his left, held Hill to his right hip, jumped, leaned and put the basketball into his left hand. As he fell, Bryant flipped the ball 15 feet and into the net, left-handed. And one.

Bryant grinned, held up his left hand and stared at it in mock wonder, goofing on O’Neal’s habit of doing the same. On the bench, O’Neal laughed, because Bryant’s gesture was for him.

O’Neal would have the last laugh and Bryant would join him, beat them all to it.

“You gotta laugh about yourself, period,” he said. “If I didn’t laugh in the game, I would have laughed about it in the next film session.”

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Timely Efforts

The Laker starters didn’t need to play a lot of minutes against the Heat:

*--* Player Min Pts Kobe Bryant 34 27 Karl Malone 30 11 Gary Payton 28 13 Shaquille O’Neal 24 14 Devean George 22 4

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