Bryant doesn’t play it safe in his return

With 3:55 left in the first quarter of Kobe Bryant’s injury-delayed season debut, he had already taken as many shots -- three -- as he did in the second half of his last appearance, Game 7 of the Lakers’ first-round playoff loss to Phoenix last spring.

His right knee and his legend secure, Bryant on Friday rejoined a Lakers team that had twice won without him, albeit against opponents that consider defense an afterthought. Tentative at times and guilty of five turnovers in the first half, Bryant scored 23 points and had six assists in a 118-112 victory over the Seattle SuperSonics that should have been easier than it turned out to be.

Bryant started and played all but 24 seconds of the first quarter, matching the new number 24 on his uniform. Coincidence? Or evidence that it’s Kobe’s world, and we’re all just small asteroids revolving around him?

Overall, he played 41 minutes, second only to Lamar Odom’s 42, and made eight of a team-high 15 shots, plus seven of 10 from the free-throw line. No halfway measures for Bryant, no easing back into the lineup. All, or nothing, though he knew that his lack of conditioning would work against him, and it did.

“I felt a little choppy, but it was good enough to help us to some degree,” said Bryant, whose assist set up Smush Parker for the layup that tied the score at 107 with 1:33 to play. “It was there in moments. My rhythm was a little off and my timing was a little off, but that will come back.”

He didn’t have a specific number of minutes in mind and was determined only that he would not be in and out of the lineup after his return. That’s why he waited until Friday, unwilling to get caught in a cycle of playing and then nervously waiting to see if his surgically repaired knee developed any swelling or pain.

“That’s one of the things we don’t want, to have to come back and be day to day. Hopefully, we’re in the clear. It feels like we are.”

His return made the evening seem like more of an occasion than merely Game 3 of 82. From the moment he announced on his website, www.kb24.com, that he intended to play Friday, his every step and every exhalation were captured by a video camera or microphone.

One TV crew focused its camera on his empty shoes, sitting on a chair in front of his empty locker. . Three videographers from his website captured the image of all the other cameras shooting video of him. And in case it comes up in conversation, the trainer used a clockwise motion to tape ice packs to Bryant’s knee.

He assured all who listened that he felt fine, that in fact, he felt young. “I feel 28, which is always a good thing,” he said, and he’s right. In his 11th season, after playing 708 regular-season games and 126 playoff games, he has the mileage of someone three or four years older.

The announcement of his name in the starting lineup drew roars from the crowd, drowning out Lawrence Tanter’s booming voice. And Bryant didn’t disappoint, making his first three shots, pulling down three rebounds and dishing off for three assists in the first quarter. He did turn over the ball three times, but the Lakers built a 38-26 lead.

His twisting, reverse layup in the second quarter gave the Lakers a 60-52 lead and sparked chants of “MVP!” A bit much to be sure, but two games without Bryant had left some fans giddy.

Odom was still clearly in charge, as he had been in the first two games. Bryant was a complementary player, neither hogging the ball nor shunning it, working his way methodically into Coach Phil Jackson’s offense.

“You could see he was trying to make too many difficult passes to players that weren’t quite used to him,” Jackson said. “I consider those good turnovers.”

Bryant and Jackson have famously feuded, but all seems well early in a season in which the Lakers have more depth and more reason to hope they can last in the playoffs at least as long as the Clippers did last season. Jackson, asked before the game about his relationship with Bryant, paused for an instant before replying, “Pen pals,” but he later acknowledged that he and Bryant are often on the same page.

That’s an improvement over the days when they weren’t reading the same book.

“Bright player that he is, he basically knows what I’m thinking and how we want to execute as a team,” Jackson said.

“I want to be able to get ideas from him and exchange it. You really do want to have a person that’s creative and looking for other areas and avenues to work for a team. He’s always going to be doing that because Kobe’s always looking for other angles.”

Bryant usually finds those angles. On Friday, his main challenge was finding the stamina to keep up with Ray Allen and the uptempo Sonics. He did, having enough energy to do a flurry of pushups after he fell chest-first to the court in the final minute.

His return didn’t mess up a good thing. The Lakers undefeated, if not unscarred.

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helene.elliott@latimes.com