Bryant Resuscitated 'Pretty Dead' Lakers

MVP Rallied L.A. From 20-Point Deficit

LOS ANGELES, May 22 -- Lower Merion High School basketball coach Gregg Downer said he has tried to watch "every second of every game" involving the Los Angeles Lakers ever since the greatest player he ever coach entered the league 12 years ago. Downer has watched Kobe Bryant win three championships and finally earn his first NBA most valuable player award this season. He has seen almost every comeback victory Bryant has pulled off since he was a scrawny teenager.

Despite his knowledge of Bryant's abilities, Downer still didn't think he was capable of scoring 23 points in the final 18 minutes to lift his team back from a 20-point deficit against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night.

"I thought it was kind of a miracle win for the Lakers," Downer said in a telephone interview on Thursday. "Down 20 with six minutes to go in the third, nothing looked good for the Lakers. Everybody knows he can explode offensively at any time, but it really looked like regardless of what Kobe can do, [the Lakers] were pretty dead in the water."

The victory, which gave the Lakers a 1-0 lead in this best-of-seven series, was the largest postseason comeback for the Lakers since they erased a 20-point deficit to defeat the Sacramento Kings in Game 4 of the 2002 Western Conference finals, when Robert Horry, now a reserve with the Spurs, buried a memorable buzzer-beating three-pointer.

"I think it's different," Bryant said as the Lakers prepared for Friday's Game 2 at Staples Center. "Because the team that we had was an already experienced group. We knew we could do that. I think the crew that we have here, everybody is so young, most of these guys, other than myself and [Derek Fisher], haven't been this deep in the playoffs before. It's a big confidence booster for them to know that we can play this well at this stage."

Bryant proved that he is never short on confidence, as he pushed the limits of getting his teammates involved. Bryant has made a concerted effort to be a better teammate this season, following a summer in which he questioned his supporting cast. He's picking up the tab at dinners, buying them each a $9,800 watch, and often looking to get them going before he gets going.

He showed the ultimate trust in his teammates in Game 5 of the conference semifinals against Utah, when he took just 10 shots and didn't have a field goal attempt in the fourth quarter of a 111-104 victory. He was back in playmaker mode against the Spurs, as he took just three shots in the first half, handed out five assists and didn't score until 89 seconds before the break.

"It's on me to read the tempo of the game and what we're doing as a team and how well we're playing, and I made my decision accordingly," Bryant said on Thursday. "We've been playing that way all season, but when you get down [some claim] it's the wrong way."

The passive, passing approach confused Lakers Coach Phil Jackson, who joked that Bryant had abandoned the triangle offense for the Bermuda Triangle.

It threw off Downer, who said, "I've rarely ever seen him that tentative."

It even baffled Lakers fans, who started groaning in the second half, then booing when the Spurs took a 65-45 lead with 5 minutes 54 seconds left in the third quarter -- and Bryant had just four points on five shots at the time.

Bryant suddenly hit a switch, scoring nine points to close out the half. Then he outscored the Spurs by himself in the fourth quarter, 14-13, and gave Spurs forward Bruce Bowen a little nudge before hitting a nine-footer with 23.9 seconds left to give his team an 87-85 lead.

"You can't be fooled by the fact that he had three shots [at halftime]. He's trying to get his teammates involved, which may have been a lot different than what people have been accustomed, prior to this year, seeing of Kobe," Bowen said.

"It makes for great drama when someone can say, 'Yeah I saw it in his eyes.' He knew that he only had three shots. He's the MVP. The MVP is not going to end up with seven shots' It was the lull before the storm, but I shouldn't call it a lull before the storm, because he's just doing what he can to help his team."

Fisher, who has spent all but three seasons of his career as Bryant's teammate, wasn't worried about how he played the first 30 minutes of the game. "I knew that he was assessing the situation," Fisher said. "I don't know if there is anybody else that can do what he does -- to take an entire half to read defenses, read how he's being played, read how the rest of us are being played. To catalog that information, then come out the second half and do the complete opposite and be successful in doing it."

Bryant didn't want to give himself too much credit, and played down his performance.

"I'm not smart enough for that," Bryant said. "Everybody makes a little bit too much of a big deal out of what I did. We got back in the game with solid D. What I did was infuse more energy into our ballclub."

And add another chapter to his legend. "Miracle is a strong word," Downer said, "but I didn't think there was any way they were winning that game."