Bryant, Allen Renew Acquaintances

This being the Lakers, drama never seems to be too far around the bend, with another subplot coming out from behind the curtain tonight.

Ray Allen and Kobe Bryant will play each other for the first time since an October spat that pitted the Seattle SuperSonics’ All-Star against Bryant in a battle of jabs, insults and otherwise.

To recap: After the Lakers and Sonics played an exhibition opener, Allen predicted Bryant would behave selfishly this season and would request a trade if the Lakers were unsuccessful.

“If Kobe doesn’t see he needs two-and-a half good players to be a legitimate playoff contender or win a championship in about a year or two he’ll be calling out to [owner] Jerry Buss that ‘We need some help in here,’ or ‘Trade me,’ ” Allen said at the time. “And we’ll all be saying, ‘I told you so,’ when he says that.”

Bryant said their differences would be settled on the court, which would have been two weeks later if Allen hadn’t sat out an exhibition rematch because of back spasms.

During that game, Bryant went to take the ball out of bounds in front of the Seattle bench, saw Allen and said sternly, “I’ll see you again.”

Allen smiled dryly as Seattle center Jerome James told Bryant to get lost, in effect, which brings the teams to tonight’s game between the surprisingly strong Sonics and the middle-of-the-pack Lakers.

“I look forward to the challenge, to not take on the challenge as an individual but to pass that throughout the whole team,” Bryant said. “When you say something like [Allen said], it’s not only directed toward me, but it’s directed toward our team as well, saying that we don’t have a good enough team to step up to the plate [and] we don’t have enough good players around here to give me the support I need. When you say something like that, it trickles throughout the whole entire team. We’ll use that as motivation.”

Allen, for his part, said he didn’t comprehend Bryant’s personalization of the situation.

“I guess the comments that I made about him being selfish and trying to help that team be successful bothered him,” Allen told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “I don’t have anything against him in general. It was just my take.

”... And that’s all he did, he just took it personal. I don’t particularly find anything particularly wrong with what I said. In hindsight, he has had some good games and other guys have stepped up. He has had some triple-doubles.”

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With tonight’s game and Wednesday’s at Sacramento, the Lakers can improve their 0-4 record against the top Western Conference teams. They’ve lost twice to Phoenix, once to San Antonio and Sacramento.

“I like [the] situation,” Coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. “Us having an edge, like, ‘We ain’t no underdog, we can beat these guys,’ that’s what we’re going to have to get.”

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TONIGHT

at Seattle, 7, Channel 9

Site -- Key Arena.

Radio -- KLAC (570); KWKW (1330).

Records -- Lakers 12-8; SuperSonics 17-4.

Record vs. SuperSonics (2003-04) -- 3-1.

Update -- The Sonics were 9-0 at home before losing to Boston, 98-84, Saturday. Ray Allen is averaging 23.8 points, tied for sixth in the league before Monday. Kobe Bryant is averaging 26.8 points, second in the league.