Jackson: Balance Needed Between Bryant and Team

After a couple of close road losses, the chicken-and-egg question hatched again.

When should Kobe Bryant shoot and when should he defer to teammates?

The latest answer was supplied by Laker Coach Phil Jackson before Wednesday’s game against Memphis.

“I think he gave the ball up in various points of the year and I think there’s been a fine balance between guys stepping up and making shots and Kobe trusting his teammates,” Jackson said. “It hasn’t got to the point where it’s not happening, where I’m disappointed, but there’s opportunities that still could be there that have to be exploited even more and we have to recognize that as a team.”

Jackson did find fault with Bryant’s teammates for trying to force the ball to Bryant despite double- and sometimes triple-teaming.

“My biggest problem is teams overplay like Washington did the other night where they’re decidedly throwing another defender on the court that we just have to go away from Kobe,” Jackson said. “Don’t even try and get the ball to him and understand that we have an advantage of four-on-three or whatever advantage on the other side of the floor.”

Ignore the league’s second-leading scorer? For real?

“You have to do that. That’s basketball,” Jackson said, citing Game 6 of the 1993 NBA Finals. “Go back to the ’93 Chicago Bulls. We had to do it. We knew that Michael Jordan was going to be doubled and we had to go away and [John] Paxson hits the three.”

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Lamar Odom, who missed three-point attempts in the final minute in losses to Miami and Washington, was told by Jackson to ease up on the long-distance shooting in crunch time.

“It’s time to penetrate and find somebody else if that’s not a shot that you’re making or comfortable with,” Jackson said.

Odom was making 33.3% of his attempts from three-point range before Wednesday’s game.

“His chances are probably 35% that he’s going to make that shot and add the pressure at the end of the game and maybe it will go down a little bit,” Jackson said. “It hasn’t been going up. Some players, you say at the end of the game maybe it’d be a higher percentage but he hasn’t shown that he makes that shot at the end of the game.”

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Miami Heat Coach Pat Riley referred to Chris Mihm and Kwame Brown as a “two-headed monster” at center, which was OK with Jackson. Sort of.

“Wow,” he said. “We’re very comfortable with it. Too comfortable with it, in fact. I don’t want Kwame to just get complacent about being the backup 20-minute center. I think that he should demand more of himself. We’re going to work on that aspect.”

Mihm was averaging 9.8 points and 6.5 rebounds before Wednesday. Brown was averaging 5.8 points and six rebounds.

“[Brown] does have to develop a go-to move and he’s got to develop an offensive game ... to become a dependable scorer,” Jackson said. “His defense, his rebounding, his activity is invaluable as far as our team.”