Bryant’s Last Look Kills

The much-awaited confrontation between Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant finally happened.

As Bryant’s missed shots began to accumulate and a Laker lead slipped away, they turned to each other and explored the reasons why.

And then they actually smiled.

It was the beginning of a feel-good ending for the Lakers, who rode Bryant’s 43 points, including a head-spinning three-pointer with 34.9 seconds left, to a 109-106 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Monday at American Airlines Center.

Kwame Brown had his most effective game as a Laker, Luke Walton stole a key rebound with 16.5 seconds left, and the Lakers moved to 4-1 on a six-game trip.

Above all, there was Bryant, who started strong, slumped in the middle quarters, and finished the way he’d begun.

With the Lakers down, 102-101, and the shot clock perilously low, Bryant had the ball knocked away by DeSagana Diop at the top of the three-point line, tried to collect it, fumbled it, finally grabbed it and threw it toward the net from 29 feet out.

It was his 33rd and final shot of the night. And his most important.

“We’re not amazed, to say the least,” Jackson said. “We are enthralled by it, and it’s a beautiful thing to see, but it’s something that we’ve grown accustomed to over the years.”

Said Bryant: “If I square my shoulders and get a good look ... that’s backyard stuff.”

Whether it was a good look or not was debatable, but the shooter deserves the benefit of the doubt if the ball goes in.

Bryant made seven of his first 10 shots but slumped from there, which led to him and Jackson bantering about whether he was tired or simply off the mark.

“It was funny,” Bryant said. “I didn’t want to come out of the game, period. We had a fun exchange. He knows how competitive I am and how badly I wanted to win this game. But he also saw a couple of my shots were falling short.”

Bryant played every minute of the first three quarters and, having made only 12 of 27 shots at the time, sat out the first 4:45 of the fourth quarter. He returned to make three of six shots, including two of three from three-point range.

He had scoring help from Brown, who made all six of his shots and finished with 12 points, and rebounding help from Walton, who squeezed between Dirk Nowitzki and Diop for a rebound after Bryant missed a late free throw. Walton was immediately fouled and made two free throws for a 107-103 Laker lead.

Brown, in his second game back after missing three weeks because of a hamstring injury, had his most efficient game this season.

“I was just trying to get the trust back from my teammates,” he said. “I know how it is when you’re on a team and they’re expecting big things from you and they haven’t gotten them. Teammates start to look away from you, you look down on yourself.”

Before Bryant went over 30 shots for the first time in five games, Laker minority owner Magic Johnson, in Dallas for business reasons, provided an impromptu state-of-Kobe analysis outside the Laker locker room.

“I love Kobe,” he said. “He’s playing unbelievable basketball. He’s got to understand the next level for him is just making the other guys better. That’s all. Maybe instead of taking 30, [take] 25. He wants to win so bad, he feels he can do it by himself. He has to realize he can’t. That’s why, to me, he’s taking all those shots.”

As Bryant’s shot total increased Monday and the Lakers fell behind, 96-90, midway through the fourth quarter, Jackson strolled over to the scorer’s table and questioned the job description of the Mavericks’ enthusiastic public-address announcer.

“Are you part of the cheerleading squad here?” he asked sarcastically.

He had kinder words for Bryant, and a team that will go no worse than 4-2 on its first long trip this season.

“Teams have streaks, they get on a run, and this is fortunate for us because this team had been dying to do something like this for a couple years now,” Jackson said.

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Road to recovery

The Lakers have won four of their last five road games:

*--* DATE OPPONENT RESULT Dec. 6 at Milwaukee W 111-92 Dec. 7 at Toronto W 102-91 Dec. 9 at Chicago W 93-80 Dec. 10 at Minnesota L 95-82 Dec. 12 at Dallas W 109-106

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