Bryant Makes Every Shot Count in Victory

On his way to a quiet Sunday night at the movies in Boston, Kobe Bryant was heckled by a Celtic fan.

“The guy told me, ‘Paul’s going to lock you up,’ ” Bryant said.

“Paul” would be Celtic forward Paul Pierce, and there was little locking up of Bryant on Monday. He scored 43 points on 18-for-39 shooting in the Lakers’ 105-97 victory over the Celtics at TD Banknorth Garden.

The moral of the story is to not irk Bryant, particularly when he’s on his way to see “V for Vendetta.”

After a slow start, he was good enough to pull the Lakers a half-game ahead of Sacramento for seventh in the Western Conference, although the Bryant shot-count debate was partially re-ignited, and even though “V” also stood for victory.

He took more shots in only two other games this season -- 46 in his 81-point effort against Toronto and 41 in early January against the Clippers.

“Kobe fought his way through it,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. “It was one of those games where I think the numbers of shots he took was too high, but he thought he was going to get fouled and he took the shots because he felt the pressure on him.”

He scored the final 14 Laker points after Luke Walton’s free throws with 8:14 to play put the Lakers ahead, 93-80.

The Laker lead, as large as 19, shrunk to five on three occasions in the closing minutes, but Bryant answered each time. He hit a 22-footer with 2:15 to play, a driving layup almost a minute later and then two free throws with 49.6 seconds left, answering each Celtic challenge.

Jackson had already lectured Bryant’s teammates earlier in the quarter.

“I got on them after a timeout and said they’ve got to get the ball, they’ve got to do other things,” Jackson said.

And what happened?

“They went back out and found another way for Kobe to get the ball and score,” Jackson said.

Said Bryant: “I do what I’ve got to do. I don’t even care whether it’s 50 shots, 60 shots, five shots. I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do to help us win.”

The Lakers will take it, a victory instead of a near-victory, which is what their previous two games in Cleveland and New Jersey had turned into.

Lamar Odom continued his improved play, scoring 17 points and taking nine rebounds, and Kwame Brown was five assists and a rebound from a triple-double. He had 11 points.

It was enough to temporarily settle Jackson, who said beforehand how the season-long trend of close losses had been “excruciating.”

“They’re on a path to give the coach a heart attack on the bench,” he said jokingly. “Either that or a stroke. They’re doing a good job of that. These players are trying to exasperate me. I’ve told them many times, one of these days they’re going to look up and I won’t be there on the bench anymore.”

Who will be there?

“I don’t know,” Jackson said. “I think [trainer] Gary Vitti’s the one.”

Jackson then got more serious, more reflective.

“We looked at them in preseason and wondered if we could win 30 games,” he said. “Got a little bit of hope toward the end of preseason that they could learn, they could play together, there’s some chemistry. They started out very slowly as a basketball team but they’ve had their moments since December when they looked like they could play ball.”

As they did Sunday in Cleveland, the Lakers on Monday took a whopping lead, 63-44, a few minutes into the third quarter. The Celtics wouldn’t go quietly -- Pierce scored 26 points -- but the Lakers, and Bryant, had just enough to hang on.

“It’s very important for us to have to prove to ourselves that we can hold on to a lead,” Bryant said.

The Lakers can now recline with 10 of their last 13 games at Staples Center ... or maybe not.

“We’ve got no reason to be confident.... We can’t assume that we’re going to all of a sudden turn around and win nine in a row or something like that,” Jackson said.

As if to demonstrate, he scheduled a practice today in Los Angeles, a rarity in past years the day after an East Coast game.

Then again, Wednesday’s opponent does happen to be Sacramento.

“We should practice, know what I mean?” Bryant said. “It’s just a little flight.”