Bryant Stays Cool on a Hot Stage

This couldn’t have felt like a refuge. Not this time, not in this town, not with this team playing this way.

He has said repeatedly that basketball is his escape, but how could Kobe Bryant’s first game back in the state where he faces a felony sexual assault charge be “the same” or “no different than any other time?” How could the Lakers’ fourth consecutive loss be “fun”?

Those were all words that Bryant used Wednesday, after the Lakers suffered their worst blowout defeat of the year, 113-91, at the hands of the Denver Nuggets. They’re all part of the wall he erects, his way of keeping his feelings and struggles to himself.

He established sometime back in October that he wouldn’t turn this season into one long Oprah episode with him spilling his heart on a daily basis.

So he says the same things over and over again, applies them to every situation even when everyone else thinks it must be different.

He knows that everything he says will be intensely analyzed in a search for everything to his feelings about the events resulting from that June 30 hotel stay to an indication about his next playing destination.

When asked if he could see himself playing with Nugget star rookie Carmelo Anthony, Bryant replied: “Sure we could.” Another reporter was halfway through the next question, when Bryant guessed the interpretation of his response and said: “Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Now don’t take that and run with it.”

That’s why he chooses to stick with the script. And he won’t give, won’t deviate one bit from his view of the way things are going.

Coach Phil Jackson told reporters that one of the reasons he canceled the morning shootaround was to avoid unnecessary media exposure (“There’s no need to give a free shot at Kobe,” he said). Bryant said it was called off because the Lakers never played well when they shot at Denver.

When it was suggested that it has to be frustrating to endure only the second four-game losing streak since Jackson took over, Bryant spun it around to say all the losing must mean they’re due for a victory.

No one else seemed to think the night was that easy, that Bryant simply showed up, put in 38 minutes of work and produced a stat line of 27 points, six assists, six steals and five turnovers.

“Personally, for Kobe I’m sure there was some emotion involved with coming back to Colorado and playing in Denver and knowing what everybody else is going to put on it,” Laker guard Derek Fisher said. But he stopped short of saying he spoke for his teammate.

“I would be remiss to try to get into Kobe’s head and try to feel what he possibly was feeling going into tonight’s game,” Fisher said.

No one’s quite sure of what Bryant’s thinking. His teammates feel more distant than ever from him. Most of them believe he will head elsewhere when he becomes a free agent at the end of the season. They’re worried that he could spend the rest of the season in the same mode as a high school senior in spring semester, unconcerned about the consequences of his actions because he’s outta there come June. They’re so frustrated with his turns when he ignores everyone else on the court that one Laker told a Clipper after last Sunday’s game that if the growing feeling that Bryant could be a Clipper next season is close to true, then “You can have him.”

Perhaps that’s why Bryant seemed so happy to see the friendly face of Mark Madsen before Tuesday’s game against Madsen’s new team, the Minnesota Timberwolves. The teammates of three years caught each other’s eyes, then they met at halfcourt and engaged in a long, warm hug.

Madsen said his thoughts and prayers were with Bryant, that he couldn’t even imagine what his friend was going through.

He said he knew the side of Bryant most people never see, the guy who always made time to chat with Madsen’s parents or his then-girlfriend. Being the thoughtful person that he is, Madsen also expressed concern for what the alleged victim must be enduring.

Bryant’s accuser doesn’t get the almost inevitable sympathy that comes from his constant exposure. Then again, she also does not have to face the media and public so often, in such large numbers.

A crowd of 19,739 -- the largest home crowd since the Nuggets moved into Pepsi Center in 1999 -- came for this game, which Jackson described as “a media event more than it is anything else.”

It didn’t turn out to be too much different from the other road games this season. Many booed Bryant every time he had the ball, but almost as many cheered when he scored.

There were some people wearing Bryant’s Laker jersey ... not to mention one man in a throwback O.J. Simpson USC jersey.

It’s tough for one celebrity scandal not to get mixed in with all the rest -- or occasionally directly linked. The two big cases du jour crossed paths this week when “Celebrity Justice” reported the mother of Michael Jackson’s accuser claimed that Bryant befriended her son in 2001. According to court documents posted on the TV newsmagazine’s Web site, following an alleged domestic violence incident with the child’s father, the mother told investigators that Bryant, Jackson and KNBC weatherman Fritz Coleman had helped her. Apparently she produced pictures of her son with the superstars (and Fritz Coleman).

Next we’ll be hearing that Bryant was the ring-bearer at Britney Spears’ insta-wedding. This is his life now, no longer just a basketball story no matter how badly he wants it to be.

He joked that the only difference was watching the 30 media members jockey for position at his locker and talk over each other to ask questions.

“Other than that, same old night,” Bryant said.

Just another 24 hour-cycle on his new planet.

*

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