Shoot First and Ask Questions Now, Lakers

They went down to the crossroads (cont.): Not that this isn’t working, but if we used to call the Shaq-Kobe Lakers dysfunctional, what do we call this team?

Eleven games into the season, Coach Phil Jackson is still trying to assign the most basic functions, as in, “Would any of you like to shoot the ball? Not you, Kobe.”

It’s not a simple problem. Kobe Bryant has no fear. His teammates fear him. Under pressure, the offense tends to devolve into everyone else standing around and watching Bryant try to beat NBA teams single-handed.

“The chicken and the egg, which came first?” Jackson mused last week. “And that’s a little bit of our problem, the chicken and the egg right now.”

Of course, in this case it’s a fragile little egg and a really big chicken.

When Bryant went into launch mode, the heat came down as much on Lamar Odom and Kwame Brown. The talented Odom vowed to start putting up 20 points, as if it had just occurred to him (“I mean, it’s not the way I play.”) and was interrupting the important work of filling up all the columns in the box score equally.

Then he actually went out and got 23 against Seattle. Just in case this really has just been a giant misunderstanding, nice work, Lamar, and remember, while everyone appreciates an all-around player, they keep score by points, not rebounds or assists.

Brown, of course, is simply overmatched, having already shown that his various limitations -- difficulty catching the ball, getting off the floor, learning -- may exceed his impressive physical attributes by a lot. If he weren’t in his fifth season, you’d think he was the one who should go to the D-league so Andrew Bynum could play.

Nevertheless, this is still Bryant’s team. If the organization as a whole is at a crossroads, he’s first in line.

One of the benefits of having Jackson back, aside from the hope (dream?) that he can get them back into the playoffs, is that Bryant has someone credible to speak (cover?) for him while he sorts things out, as he is now.

Bryant has been betrayed right along by his superhero instincts. The same things that made him a child prodigy -- the bulletproof confidence, the single-minded focus, the dedication that became self-obsession -- also taught him his way was right, no matter what anyone said.

He learned to restrain himself to make teammates better, but it came late in the developmental process and ran counter to his instincts. Now, with Shaquille O’Neal gone and Bryant under pressure to show he didn’t single-handedly put the “dys” in “dysfunction,” Kobe tends to go back to what he has always done best, or worst, which is to take over.

The great Stan Hochman of the Philadelphia Daily News once wrote that if you didn’t like Muhammad Ali, it was OK because there would be another Ali along in a minute. Bryant is like that, at least on the floor, constantly rethinking his approach, perhaps at his coach’s direction and perhaps not.

The player who began the season was Ultimate Kobe, the best we had ever seen, the one who really could have succeeded Michael Jordan, making teammates better early and taking over late.

But then the Lakers went on the road, lost three in a row and a familiar pattern returned.

On Nov. 16, Bryant confided to ESPN’s Jim Gray that he had hurt a finger on his shooting hand eight days before ... then bravely put up 36 shots, making 15, as they beat the Knicks.

Two nights later Bryant made 12 of 35 shots in the loss to the Clippers that confirmed the change in the local hierarchy, which everyone on both sides pooh-poohed but all ached to win. However, Bryant did say afterward he didn’t want to shoot that much.

Before the game against Chicago two nights later, Jackson, doing his disarming best, made fun of the issue, joking, “I don’t see why they even go guard the other guys on this team. They should just all go guard him, put five against one.”

It turned out more like good advice. Guarded by slow Andres Nocioni, Bryant couldn’t help himself, making four of five in the first 4 1/2 minutes -- a 53-shot pace. Kobe wound up taking only 34 shots but flamed out at the end, missing eight of his last 10 as the reeling Bulls came from behind to win.

By now, it wasn’t so funny, which may be why Jackson launched into an unusually passionate defense of Odom, who had taken only four shots against the Bulls, noting, “That’s what we love about Lamar, he’ll give the damn ball up. We need guys to do that on this team, more than we need guys to shoot.”

Providentially, Bryant went to the bench with two fouls minutes into the game against Seattle, putting the ball literally and figuratively into the hands of Odom, who walked the walk, at least for a night.

So there’s still hope for them as Bryant decides who he is to be, who it is the Lakers are trying to rebuild around and what their chances of doing it together are. The test isn’t really whether they make the playoffs, but whether they can stay in the running, and regardless of what happens, stay together.

First, of course, they have to get together.

Faces and Figures

The Bulls, who won 47 games last season in a weaker East, knew they’d take a step backward, going from a 6-foot-10 post-up player, Eddy Curry, to 6-5 Michael Sweetney. Tyson Chandler didn’t like moving from power forward to center and was often benched in fourth quarters. “I’d like to see 14-, 15-rebound games, three or four blocked shots out of him,” Coach Scott Skiles said. “We’ve seen him have 22 rebounds. He’s having nights he’s out there eight or nine minutes and gets one rebound. So we’ve chosen to go in another direction when that happens.” For his part, Chandler is getting tired of hearing about it but acknowledges it’s his problem: “People have to feel my presence out there,” he said after getting 15 rebounds and two blocks in the win over the Lakers at Staples Center. “I get down mostly on myself. I may say things about the coach, but the majority is hitting home. I got to get out there and play hard.”

Then there’s Tim Thomas, whose $14-million salary the Bulls had to take back to make the Curry deal work. Skiles wasn’t even activating him and Thomas wasn’t even sitting on the bench in his civilian clothes. Thomas has since left the team on “personal business” and is expected to be bought out. “Tim’s at a different stage of his career,” General Manager John Paxson said. “He has had a big contract. He’s at the end of that deal. We have young, hungry guys who want to be on the floor and prove something.”

Also ticketed to ride is 30-year-old Ruben Patterson, who doesn’t fit into Portland’s youth movement, even if his emotional age is in the teens. Patterson was sent home from the East Coast after going off on Coach Nate McMillan but said he regretted his actions. “It was like the devil hit me and told me to get it out,” Patterson said.

Meanwhile, in New York, they’re trying to convince Curry that it’s possible to pass out of a double team. In his first 10 games, Curry had three assists and 31 turnovers, an 0.1 ratio, thought to be the worst since New Jersey’s Yinka Dare had 72 turnovers and no assists in 1995-96 for an 0.0.... On the other hand, Knick rookie Channing Frye put up three 20-point games in a row -- all off the bench -- while shooting 56%, leading to comparisons to no less than Patrick Ewing. “I remember when Patrick came into the league, and Moses [Malone],” Coach Larry Brown said. “Nobody ever thought they could shoot the ball. They were just defenders and rebounders. All of a sudden everybody saw Patrick with the ability to step out and make an open jump shot. But with Channing, that’s something you can’t teach. You can become a better shooter in the pros because we have so much time to work on it, but to shoot as well as Patrick or he does, that’s a gift.”

I liked it better when he wasn’t talking: Damon Jones forgave the Cleveland media for making him the backup point guard but when asked why he had gone silent in the first place, said, “Next question.” ... Toronto rookie Charlie Villanueva, drafted at No. 7 despite questions about his maturity, is showing he’s actually that good, averaging 13 points in 28 minutes. Nevertheless, maturity remains an issue. Asked about playing alongside Chris Bosh, Villanueva replied, “We’re like Tim Duncan and David Robinson. But a younger version. I really feel that.”