For Bryant, Cooper Is Just Loopy

Another day in Lakerland, another step toward who-really-knows-what-will-happen with a team that has yet to win three consecutive games, but has been more intriguing lately with Kobe Bryant’s scoring outburst and ensuing sideline exchanges with opposing coaches.

Bryant has scored 42, 48, and 42 points over the last three games, a loss to Miami followed by victories over Toronto and Denver, the most recent effort coming with added incentive from Denver interim Coach Michael Cooper, who might have been a decent Kobe stopper in his playing days and tried to be one Sunday from the sidelines.

Cooper was providing Nugget guard DerMarr Johnson with an in-game tutorial on how to defend Bryant, including the requisite “keep him in front of you” and “make him take tough fadeaways” when Bryant walked toward them before play resumed.

“[Cooper] sees me coming so he says, ‘And lock him up,’ ” Bryant said, adding plenty of inflection on the last few words.

“I kind of look at him and he said, ‘Yeah, lock you up.’

“The next play I went to the basket and dunked it baseline. Then I went and did the reverse dunk. I was looking over at him but he didn’t want to look over.”

After the game, when Bryant had finished making 14 of 29 shots and the Lakers had won, 99-91, Cooper said he thought the Nuggets had held Bryant in check.

“If that’s keeping me in check, wait until the next time,” Bryant said Monday. “If I go nuts [in the Jan. 12 rematch], then what’s going to happen?”

*

The Lakers have more immediate concerns in the next two days with road games against San Antonio and Dallas, two-thirds of the Texas Triangle.

“It’s about as challenging as you’re going to get, going into Texas,” Laker Coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. “We don’t [quite] have the triangle. We have a two-pointed whatever. We have a Texas Triangle that’s obtuse.”

The Spurs have picked up right about where they left off last season, putting up the league’s best home record, 14-1, their lone loss coming to the Seattle SuperSonics last month. Dallas is 20-10 overall, three games ahead of the Lakers record-wise.

*

Bryant didn’t need to stop and think about what hurts him the most, 28 games and a league-high 1,216 minutes into the season.

“Foot, foot,” he said. “That’s an easy one. My thumb just feels kind of stiff. It should be fine by [today]. My shoulder feels fine. My foot is still the one.”

His slightly sprained right thumb and his strained left shoulder are healing, but the plantar fasciitis in Bryant’s left foot will linger.

“It’ll heal up in the off-season,” Bryant said. “Right now, it’s good enough where I can just play through it.

“Despite all the minutes I’ve been playing, it’s gotten better. That’s a great sign.”

*

Vlade Divac, who has missed the last four games and a total of 15 because of back problems, was evaluated Monday by specialist William Dillin of the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic. The Lakers are expecting results of diagnostic tests on Divac’s back by today.... Caron Butler did not practice Monday because of flu-like symptoms.

*

TONIGHT

at San Antonio, 5:30 PST, Ch. 9

Site -- SBC Center.

Radio -- KLAC (570); KWKW (1330).

Records -- Lakers 16-12; Spurs 25-7.

Record vs. Sonics -- 0-1.

Update -- Tim Duncan had 26 points and 16 rebounds in the Spurs’ 105-96 victory Nov. 5 over the Lakers.