Bryant Has the Will to Show Them the Way

The difference between this game and the last time the Lakers came here and got blasted out of the Pepsi Center was they had a superstar back.

Not Shaquille O’Neal, who missed the Lakers’ pathetic loss here with an injury in January and whose most memorable performance Wednesday night was a pregame dissing of General Manager Mitch Kupchak.

This was about the return of Kobe Bryant. The Good Kobe. The Wise Kobe, sound in body and decisions.

This was his finest moment of the season and the best so far in a string of five games in which he has averaged 33.8 points, eight assists and 6.6 rebounds while shooting 58.3%

The unlikely combination of Luke Walton and Kareem Rush hooked up for the winning three-pointer in the Lakers’ 112-111 victory over the Denver Nuggets, but that possession showed a sign of Bryant’s growth as well: He gave up the ball because he said he trusted his teammates.

Make no mistake, the game belonged to him. His magnificent box score line of 35 points, 10 assists, seven rebounds and three steals didn’t do it justice.

He helped in every facet of the game, at the times it was needed most. He even took the defensive assignment on Carmelo Anthony in the final eight minutes of the game and held him to four points after ‘Melo had been “trashing everybody” (in the words of Phil Jackson).

Bryant wouldn’t let the Lakers lose this game and whatever bit of momentum they had built with four consecutive victories. Not when they were down 15 points in the third quarter or down 13 five minutes into the fourth or down by seven with less than 90 seconds to play.

“This was the first time this season I had to try to will us back in the game,” Bryant said. “A lot of times you look at the stats and put up good numbers, but a lot of times that’s not what does it. You really have to put forth the will, and when your teammates see that you’re putting forth 110%, then they have to follow suit, they have to believe. And I believed.”

The Nuggets believed they were robbed because a bad call went against them in the final minute, when an officials’ shot-clock mistake and an inadvertent whistle caused a jump ball after the Nuggets had grabbed an offensive rebound. But the teams with the rings and the superstars tend to get the calls, and the Lakers’ was shining brightest Wednesday.

Bryant is as gifted as anyone in the league. It’s always been a question of whether he’ll let his intelligence or his stubbornness dictate which direction he takes his talents. At times he sets off on his own to prove he can win games by himself. At other times he blends seamlessly with his teammates, just as content to set them up as he is to score.

The rest of the guys never can predict which Kobe they’re going to get and aren’t about to leave suggestions at his locker.

“I think he’s good enough to kind of make those decisions on his own,” Derek Fisher said. “When you have that type of ability, he can pick and choose before a game, during a game, if he wants to become more aggressive, if he wants to take a step back.”

Eventually, he always seems to come around, and Laker fans can only hope that the same wisdom will prevail when it’s time for him to sign his next contract. There’s no good reason to leave when the Lakers can offer the most money, an inside lane in the championship race and, eventually, life without O’Neal and Jackson if Bryant can wait.

Jackson was asked whether he knew what prompted Bryant’s switch to compliant play.

He paused and smirked.

“Probably a subtle talk with his coach,” Jackson said.

“I’m not going to take any credit for it. But I do think it brings a focus back, about how the team needs him and he needs to play within the system. We rely on him. When he plays this kind of game we’re an exceptionally talented team. It sparks everybody’s effort.”

Some players wish Jackson would have these talks with Bryant earlier in the season. Or more often. But we all know that isn’t Jackson’s laissez-faire style. Especially this season when, in light of Bryant’s legal concerns, Jackson made a point of giving Bryant his space.

They finally got together on the Monday after the All-Star game, after a week in which Bryant said he didn’t care whether Jackson returned as the Lakers’ coach and admitted he didn’t much care about Jackson the person. The main topic was to forget about everything else and focus on the here and now.

“There’s been a lot said in the media,” Bryant said over the weekend. “It’s good for us to sit down. Our message was the same, which was, we’re just going to stay in the present. Regardless of what happens, our likes or dislikes about one or another, just stay in the present and get the job done.”

Jackson said the discussion extended to other topics ... such as child care.

Bryant said: “He might be exaggerating.”

So, even if there was some miscommunication about their communication, at least the primary message got through.

“He came back and got a new aspect of the game,” Gary Payton said. “He sees that once he gets everybody involved, it makes it a lot easier for him to go one-on-one.”

His second time in the closest NBA city to the site of his sexual assault trial and the possibility that the Nuggets will use their salary-cap space to pursue Bryant this summer tempered the crowd’s treatment of him somewhat. There were some loud boos and a few fans wearing derogatory T-shirts, but Bryant said the crowd was “better” than last time.

So was Bryant.

A fantastic performance this night, a court appearance next week, the NBA and legal schedules giving us the only constants in this crazy year.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.