Payton Sounds Up to the Task

Somewhere between the scowl and the bench, between possessions with the ball in his hands and the offense in someone else’s, stands Gary Payton in his first season as a Laker.

Crowded by superstars and then deserted by them, Payton now has the playing time, the ball, the offensive responsibility, the whip, whatever he wants. It’s like he never left Seattle.

It wasn’t supposed to go like this. He’d rather have Shaquille O’Neal in the middle, Karl Malone down low, Kobe Bryant on a wing. Yet when the second half started Monday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Payton led Horace Grant, Devean George, Kareem Rush and Slava Medvedenko out of the huddle.

“Well, it puts more pressure on that position,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “Obviously, he’s got a leadership role he never thought he’d be vaulted into at this time.”

With the lineup changing around him and Jackson expecting more of the triangle principles, Payton has averaged 14.1 points and 6.1 assists, his lowest numbers in more than a decade. But he is among the best in the league in assists per turnover. He wants to play more, and Monday, when Bryant was injured, he played 42 minutes.

Even when O’Neal returns in the next few games, the basketball will be Payton’s, without question.

“I’ve just got to go out there and try to get everybody involved, sort of the way I’ve been playing and just try to help all the other guys out on the floor,” he said. “I think all I’ve got to do is be myself, just come out there and play, help guys out, help them along in the game. Don’t be on people. We’ve got to pat and encourage people. So if we encourage a lot of these guys and get them to playing the way they should play, we should be fine.”

In the Lakers’ 10-point win over the Cavaliers, when the future-Hall-of-Famer count fell to one, Payton was five of 22 from the floor and had four assists and six turnovers, arguably his worst game of the season.

“That is nothing,” he said. “We’ve got to win. I don’t care about me being successful. I’ve been successful all my career. I don’t need to be successful. I want ... us to win basketball games. So it was nothing. It was an off night. I don’t care about that, as long as we got the win.... We’re fine. I’m fine.”

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Grant, whose father is ailing in Georgia, expected to play tonight and then leave the club for an unspecified period.

Grant was to speak Tuesday with Jackson, though a team spokesman did not know whether the conversation took place and believed Grant’s plans were fluid.

On Tuesday afternoon, Jackson said, “We anticipate him being here [tonight]. We’re aware of the fact he’s considered going home. Right now, we don’t know if it’s a probability or a possibility.”

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TONIGHT

vs. Denver

7:30 p.m., Fox Sports Net

Site -- Staples Center.

Radio -- KLAC-AM (570), KWKW-AM (1330).

Records -- Lakers 23-11, Nuggets 23-16. Record vs. Nuggets -- 1-1.

Update -- The Lakers play the Nuggets for the third time in 11 games. They won the first on Kobe Bryant’s shot at the buzzer and lost the second, a week ago in Denver, by 22 points. Nugget forward Carmelo Anthony has the flu but is expected to play. He has averaged 22 points in two games against the Lakers on identical eight-for-17 shooting nights. The Nuggets outrebounded the Lakers, 60-37, on Jan. 7. Three Nuggets -- Anthony, Earl Boykins and Andre Miller -- scored at least 20 points in that game.