Bryant Remains Focused

Shaquille O’Neal lobbed a couple of days’ worth of jabs and punch lines, and then Kobe Bryant answered, in a way.

“I really don’t have that much to say about it,” Bryant said. “I don’t really care about that situation over there. I don’t really care about what they say or what he may say. I really don’t care.

“What I have to focus on is making sure that we believe in ourselves and we try to fight as much as possible to get into the playoffs. All that other stuff that goes on is irrelevant.”

O’Neal has cut into Bryant since being traded from the Lakers last July, his latest words decrying Bryant a “problem” in advance of tonight’s Laker-Miami Heat game. (O’Neal, in a rare self-critique, said he also had been a problem at times over the last few years.)

Even though O’Neal has called Bryant “a clown” and suggested he was a cancer, Bryant has maintained a high road of sorts, acknowledging he and O’Neal weren’t the best of friends, but refusing to engage in a cross-country debate of jagged words.

The only criticism Bryant has offered was more of a correction, saying he was a Lamborghini instead of a Corvette after O’Neal floated a Corvette-hitting-a-brick-wall analogy when asked what would happen if Bryant penetrated the lane in their December game.

Since that game, a 104-102 overtime victory for Miami, O’Neal’s Heat has shot to the top of the Eastern Conference, while the Lakers are ninth in the West and would be outsiders if the playoffs began today.

Bryant, who scored only three points in the Lakers’ last two fourth quarters, said tonight’s game was no different than the 18 others facing the Lakers from now through April 20.

“Every game for us should be a playoff game, being that we’re fighting for that eighth seed,” Bryant said. “We’re playing for playoff position.”

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As the Lakers move closer to either the playoffs or regular-season elimination, some of the players have claimed they don’t read the papers or worry about the standings, repeating the cliche that they’re only focused on their team.

Not necessarily true, Coach Frank Hamblen said.

“I’m sure they watch ESPN, they know what’s happening, they see the scores,” he said. “Most of them get papers delivered to their doors at the hotel. Most guys are students of the game and students of the NBA. They know what’s going on around the league as well as the race they’re in.”

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Bryant, when asked by the media if he thought the Lakers would make the playoffs: “Y’all don’t think so, I can tell. I believe in us. We believe in each other. That’s all that really matters at the end of the day. If you guys are right, you’re right. If you’re wrong

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TONIGHT

at Miami, 5 PST, TNT

Site -- American Airlines Arena.

Radio -- 570, 1330.

Records -- Lakers 32-31, Heat 50-16.

Record vs. Heat -- 0-1.

Update -- The Heat, winners of 10 consecutive games, became the league’s first 50-victory team Tuesday when Dwyane Wade’s last-second shot provided a 98-96 victory over the New York Knicks. The Lakers have lost seven of their last 11 and are 2-2 on their six-game trip. Kobe Bryant scored 42 points when the Lakers and Heat met Dec. 25, but the Heat won in overtime, 104-102. Shaquille O’Neal had 24 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out with 2:15 left in the fourth quarter. The game had a 7.3 national rating, the highest for a regular-season game since March 1998.