Bryant Sounds Hopeful

Kobe Bryant said his sprained right shoulder was better Sunday afternoon, a claim that, if nothing else, kept him off the injured list for another day.

Those around the Lakers said Bryant is predicting a quick recovery, but he apparently is saving peak buoyancy for Phil Jackson and the Laker trainers. Speaking about the injury to reporters for the first time, he said this sprain was less severe than the last, which caused him to miss six January games, but that he would stay with the rehabilitation and simply hope for the best.

“We’re just going to have to wait and see,” he said. “This is a type of injury that takes four weeks to heal, from what I’m told. We’ll have to see how it goes.

“It won’t be fully healed until summertime, when I take some time off. I’ll just have to see how it feels.”

The Lakers did not immediately put Bryant on the injured list because Karl Malone is not ready to be activated.

With 20 regular-season games remaining, Bryant and Malone sat side by side on the bench, Malone having not played since Dec. 21, Bryant about to miss a handful of games for the third time since mid-January.

Bryant said it was perhaps “worthwhile” to begin considering the number of games it would take for the Lakers to find their rhythm together, but he said, “It depends on how much time I have to spend off the court. Hopefully, it won’t be as long as they say. But we’ll see. I’ll be able to adjust to whatever the team needs me to do when I get back.”

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It appears Bryant’s shoulder will be vulnerable when he returns, a fact that will become particularly critical in the rough-and-tumble playoffs.

Jackson could limit Bryant’s minutes at small forward or have him limit his penetration, but he claimed to have a better idea.

“I think the most important thing,” Jackson said, “would be to just go to the zone defense and stop playing defense where you try to get through screens, where the contact comes on collisions off picks, screen-and-rolls and baseline screens.”

The Lakers have played, maybe, eight possessions of zone defense in two years.

“Maybe we will,” Jackson said.

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A Lexus has replaced the vintage convertible Cadillac as Luke Walton’s first transportation option, but Walton dismissed the appearance he had gone corporate.

First off, he said, the windshield wipers don’t work on the Cadillac, something of a problem even in Southern California. Second, there are climate-control issues.

“The heater and AC,” he said, “is either roof-up or roof-down.”

One option the Lexus lacks: The “Nate Walton for Governor” bumper sticker.

On Sunday morning, Walton peeled back the top and drove the Caddy in from his Manhattan Beach apartment, content in a rookie season that has brought unexpected minutes and opportunity.

For a coach who views rookies as valets at best and nuisances at worst, Walton has averaged nearly 11 minutes a game, the bulk of them in the fourth quarter.

Jackson likes Walton’s pass-first sensibilities and his on-floor relationship with Shaquille O’Neal, who moves with purpose with Walton around.

Walton said he expected to spend the season at the end of the bench, learning the game and the lifestyle while Malone, Horace Grant and Slava Medvedenko did all of the playing.

“It’s a lot more than I expected at the beginning of the year,” Walton said. “[But] I can’t wait for Karl to get back. I love watching him play.”

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Malone said his knee felt strong, a day after Saturday’s workout, the most rigorous yet. O’Neal, picking up where Gary Payton did last week, predicted Malone would play Friday in Minnesota.... Grant, who missed his third game because of a hip flexor strain, said the earliest he would return was Wednesday in Boston.