An all-out effort befitting an all-around teammate

Has he ever screamed to the crowd like that? Has he ever flapped his gold jersey like that?

Has cool, calm, drop-top-Impala-driving Kobe Bryant ever shown us so much of himself as he did during that hair-raising, skin-chilling moment Wednesday night?

Have we ever appreciated it more?

In his dozen turbulent years in Los Angeles, Bryant has scored more points and made bigger plays.

But I will stake my press pass on the fact that he has never been a better all-around player than on Wednesday night in the Lakers’ 122-107 victory over the Nuggets in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.

“Brought me out of my seat,” said Lamar Odom, speaking for all of Los Angeles.

“Indefensible,” said George Karl, speaking for all of Denver.

“MVP!” chanted the crowd even as it filed into the city streets, speaking for all of basketball.

If you saw it, you are still seeing it. If you felt it, you will be feeling it all spring.

The soaring dunks, the swaying jumpers, the slithering passes, the stare at the crowd and the Nuggets and anyone within staring distance, again and again.

Then, best of all, the scream.

Can you still see Bryant after he made that clinching three-pointer with 5:21 left?

Can you still feel his raw mix of intensity and joy as he ran back down the court screaming at himself, then screaming at the fans, then tugging on his jersey like a proud school kid?

Later, Bryant was even making all of his cliches.

“We did our jobs, we came out like professionals and played hard,” he said.

The win gave the Lakers a near-insurmountable two-games-to-none lead in the series.

The win cemented Bryant’s stature as basketball’s best player.

But as much as all that, the win also furthered his growing reputation as one of basketball’s greatest teammates.

He scored 49 points, including 20 in the first quarter and 19 in the fourth quarter when the Nuggets’ defense was sagging on everyone else.

He had 10 assists, including seven in the third quarter when the Nuggets began swarming him.

He scored early because it was necessary. He created baskets later because it was imperative. He scored in the end because he had no choice.

In a two-hour display that stunned a veteran Staples Center crowd, Bryant not only carried the Lakers, but lifted up his teammates so they could carry them as well, again and again.

“In the past when he’s been hot like this, that just means he’s going to shoot,” said Luke Walton. “But tonight, when they flooded him, he passed it around and got everyone involved.”

Walton, one of nine Lakers to score, shook his head.

“When Kobe is playing like he played tonight, there’s nothing anyone can do,” he said. “You just can’t stop him.”

When Bryant made the last of his jump shots -- he missed just nine of 27 shots overall -- he pantomimed like he was tucking his fingers into his pants, a gunslinger.

When he came off the floor with 2:02 remaining, he stalked directly to the bench, did not bask in the spotlight, a man just beginning a mission.

“We’ve got to take care of business,” Bryant said. “We’ve got to come with focus.”

Surely even Bryant must agree this was at least one of his best games?

“I think so,” he said. “It’s just about reading the defense.”

Reading the defense, and reading the moment.

Game 2 is traditionally the game that peels back the glittery outer layers of an NBA playoff series to reveal each team’s inner mind-set and mission.

Now we know.

Game Two was Game Whew.

Game Two was Game Shooo.

In front of a raucous Staples Center crowd that screamed at the Nuggets like it wouldn’t be seeing them again -- which it might not -- Bryant and the Lakers swatted the gunners back to Denver for Game 3 and a near-impossible task.

In NBA history, 94% of teams taking a two-games-to-none lead have won the series.

When it comes to first-round Game 2s in the Phil Jackson era, the numbers are also staggering.

Before Tuesday, all four times the Lakers have won Game 2 of the first series under Jackson, they have made the NBA Finals.

All three times they have lost Game 2, they have failed to reach the Finals.

If Bryant can have a few more games like this, just reaching the Finals won’t be enough this team, witness a third-quarter run that typified his basketball brilliance.

The Nuggets had tied the score at 71-71. At the time, Bryant had 28 points.

But nothing compared with what he did next.

Pass to Walton for a layup and a free throw.

Pass to Vladimir Radmanovic for a dunk.

Pass to Walton for a three-pointer.

Hand in Carmelo Anthony’s face, steal from Anthony, court-length pass to start a Gasol layup attempt that resulted in a free throw.

Ally-oop dunk on a pass from Gasol.

Pass to Sasha Vujacic for three-pointer.

By that time, there were three seconds remaining in the quarter and the Lakers led by 10.

“You have to find penetration and we got that,” Jackson said later.

Bryant penetrated the Nuggets’ defense, penetrated their psyche, penetrated our memories.

Midway through the second quarter, Bryant was talking about Magic Johnson on the giant video scoreboard, then they introduced Magic sitting at his usual corner seat, and the crowd roared.

By the end of the game, that roar would have been drowned out by the noise for Bryant, a new kind of magic, the best kind of Kobe.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.