Bryant Expects to Play

Kobe Bryant missed a light practice Monday and will miss another today while he attends pretrial hearings in Eagle, Colo., but he apparently told Coach Phil Jackson he was optimistic about returning in time Wednesday for Game 5 at Staples Center.

Jackson said Bryant told him Sunday night that the hearing might last only half a day. Game time, because of four-game sweeps in the New Jersey-New York and San Antonio-Memphis series, is 7 p.m.

Asked about Bryant’s demeanor heading into a trying week, Jackson said, “He’s OK. He’s hopeful that the week, the process will be OK. That he’ll be able to get back here in time for the ballgame. That perhaps he’ll have half a day there on Wednesday that’ll allow him the opportunity to get back.”

The next scheduled hearings are May 10-12, which would fall late in the Western Conference semifinals.

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A couple of things in the World According to Phil.

First, regarding Steve Francis baring his left breast after making the game-tying shot near the end of regulation:

Said Jackson: “That’s the breed of the younger generation. They want the attention to go to them. The generation I was in, you avoided that. That was calling distinction to yourself rather than your group or your team. That’s just the difference in [the way] our society has changed in the last 30 years of basketball. But, I see nothing wrong with it in this day and age, if that’s what society has turned toward.

“Some of it has to do with our society. Some of it has to do with being lost, perhaps, as individuals, feeling lost in our society and needing that attention. It’s part of what our game is about, and the NBA enjoys it, endorses it.”

Then, on Jackson sometimes resting Bryant, even when the Laker guard says he is not fatigued:

Said Jackson: “We sometimes need [Bryant] not to be on the floor, simply because their defense keys so much on him.

“It’s an advantage for us not to have him on the floor, so they have to play somebody straight [up] and not double-team, and key on.

“In that regard, there are moments that we need to have him off. I chose to go with Kareem [Rush] late in the ballgame to replace Kobe, rather than with Rick [Fox].”

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Bryant was chosen to the NBA All-Defensive first team Monday. It is Bryant’s third consecutive year on the first team.... Slava Medvedenko played seven minutes Sunday after sitting out Game 3 because of a strained Achilles’ tendon. He did not run Monday, though he said he expected to play Wednesday.... The Lakers have been told the earliest possible start for Round 2, should they reach it, would be Monday in San Antonio.... Jackson said he would continue to start Devean George over Fox at small forward, an adjustment he made for Game 4.