Bryant Tones It Down

It was a different Kobe Bryant on Wednesday night against Portland, somewhere between what he didn’t do Sunday in Sacramento and what he did do Tuesday against Golden State.

His play was measured, less frantic, just as Coach Phil Jackson had expected.

“Kobe was on a mission [Tuesday],” Jackson said. “Sometimes his needs to overwhelm the rest of the ballclub, the necessity of the rest of the ballclub, because of that. As we get into the playoffs, that’ll dissipate. He knows that he’s got to put his ego aside and conform to what we have to do if we’re going to go anywhere in the playoffs.”

So much of what the Lakers do turns on Bryant. So, when he sends teammates home after the 81st game shaking their heads, Jackson had only hoped for balanced play in the 82nd, and it was there, topped with late-game heroics.

In recent games, Karl Malone and Gary Payton had become less involved, counter to Jackson’s season-long plan to arrive in April with something approaching a four-point attack.

“Any player who takes it on himself to do that knows he’s going against the basic principals of basketball,” Jackson said. “That’s a selfish approach to the game. So, you know, when you’re breaking down the team or breaking down and doing things individualistic you’re going to have some unhappy teammates. That’s your responsibility as a player to see it and take that kind of mode, especially if he’s part of this ... ballclub, he knows he has to do that. He knows these things.”

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Though Jackson has said he would like as much time as possible to prepare for the playoffs, he said a Saturday night Game 1 won’t be so much different than a Sunday afternoon Game 1.

The Lakers will meet tonight to review tape and form a scouting report on Houston, practice in earnest Friday, then hold a light shoot-around Saturday morning.

“It gives us a day to prepare and the team a day off,” Jackson said. “They need a day off.... Regardless, you need to have a lot of energy going into the playoffs.”

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The Lakers have experimented with interchanging Shaquille O’Neal and Malone in the front court, which has allowed O’Neal to play some possessions on the wing. The strategy was devised in part to clear O’Neal from the double teams.

O’Neal has enjoyed it and Malone likes the pounding in the post, but Jackson said he’d probably scrap the plan for the playoffs. Most years, Jackson is adding dimensions to their game, but this spring he’ll back off.

“I’ll make it much simpler for this ballclub to do things,” he said. “I’ve tried to simplify things as it is.”

The decision was almost made for him Tuesday night, when he looked out and saw confusion.

“We’re going to have to go back and say maybe this experiment is too close to the end of the year to try and play around with this,” he said. “We kind of thought Karl would get a chance to blend in, find a way to blend in, and we’d be able to get that together. With Rick [Fox] being out there, like another guard for us on the floor, we’d be able to get things going and get organized ourselves.”

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Bryant has a pretrial hearing in Eagle, Colo., in his sexual assault case April 26-28. The hearing conflicts with a scheduled Game 5 of the first-round series against Houston on April 28. Bryant has twice had court hearings on game days but has managed to return to play each time.

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Gary Payton, Derek Fisher and Devean George played 82 games. In 14 NBA seasons, Payton has played all 82 nine times. Fisher, racked by injuries for two seasons, has not missed a game over the last two. George has played 82 in two of the last three seasons.... The team does not think Fox, who has a dislocated right thumb, will be ready to play by Saturday.