Lone-Star State Is OK for Lakers

Kobe Bryant sat on the far end of the bench. He wore gray sweats and a weary expression. He stood for every timeout and applauded every run while working the toughness out of his bubble gum. It is what he’ll do for two or three weeks, if the doctors are correct about the shoulder he sprained two days before.

Shaquille O’Neal and Karl Malone stayed in the locker room. Gary Payton was on the floor, and that would do for a night, one in four good enough.

For the fourth time in eight seasons, and for the first time in going on five years, the Lakers played without O’Neal and Bryant, and they played again without Malone. Then they beat the Denver Nuggets, 97-71, on Wednesday night at Staples Center, and with startling ease.

“We just played,” Payton said. “We showed we can play without our top guys and we just gutted it down.”

Kareem Rush started in place of Bryant, Slava Medvedenko for Malone and Horace Grant for O’Neal against a Nugget team that beat them by 22 points a week before in Denver.

Phil Jackson won his 800th game, arriving there faster than any previous coach, 38 games faster than Pat Riley. He got a clean, total victory, as the Lakers committed six turnovers through three quarters, held the Nuggets to 35.9% shooting, and ran the offense.

“They made sense out of what we’re trying to do,” Jackson said.

With these players, and without their larger-than-life teammates, the offense, Jackson said, “is a necessity. They know it and we know it. They’re working as hard as they can to execute that.”

The Nuggets, a franchise coming to life in the sturdy Western Conference, played as if they’d already made their point.

The Lakers had more energy, the Nuggets seemingly less confidence, and the Laker lead in the first half was 22, exactly the final deficit in Denver.

Payton, who had the ball and the offense in his hands with Bryant injured, had 21 points and six assists. He made nine of 13 field-goal attempts. Medvedenko scored 22 points, 10 in the first quarter, and took nine rebounds. He was nine for 12 from the floor. The Lakers made more than half of their attempts, the offense freeing them for open shots. Six Lakers had at least eight points, including Devean George, who scored 12.

The Nuggets beat the Suns in Phoenix on Tuesday night, traveled, and looked it. Rookie Carmelo Anthony played through the last bits of flu, after playing 34 minutes the night before. He missed 13 of 17 shots and scored 14 points.

While waiting on three of their four future Hall of Famers, and hoping to have it be presentable once they all return, the Lakers won their third consecutive game. Malone has a sprained knee, O’Neal a strained calf and Bryant the shoulder injury. Between them and their good parts, the Lakers could build one new player.

It could be three or more weeks until they’re all back, and Jackson tried to fill the gaps with reserves young and old. Jamal Sampson, who should play more when Grant leaves the team to see his ill father, scored five points in three minutes. Derek Fisher, groping for his shot, came off the bench and scored nine points.

And the Lakers pulled away, slowly but steadily. They defended with some conscience for it, and the Nuggets shot 35.1% in the first half and barely better than that in the second.

“It gives us some confidence,” said Jackson, who played eight players 19 or more minutes. “We know we have some tough games ahead of us.... We have to get the games we can get on our home court.”

They play the Kings at Sacramento on Friday, the Clippers on Saturday and, after Monday’s game against the Suns, play three on the road.

But, they got one, the first one, and Payton led them.

“That’s my type of game anyway,” he said. “That’s where I come from.... It was very easy, just like when I was in Seattle. We made things simple.

“It gave everybody else confidence. They know they can play, they can play without these guys.... Slava, Kareem, Devean, when they play loose, you can tell. At times, with all four of us in there, they don’t know if they’re going to get shots.”