Tired Bryant Rises to Challenge

DENVER, May 24 -- Kobe Bryant flared his nostrils, arched his eyebrows and gritted his teeth moments after hitting a difficult, contested three-pointer over Denver Nuggets reserve J.R. Smith with 69 seconds remaining in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals on Saturday night. The menacing look wasn't necessarily intended to intimidate his opponent, silence a crowd that jeered him, or send a message to anyone who doubted who was the NBA's best closer -- especially after a certain superstar in Cleveland had made a dramatic game-winner against Orlando about 24 hours before.

Bryant simply was exhausted.

"You're hitting a shot that probably shouldn't have gone in; your legs are tired; now you got to go guard Chauncey [Billups]; you've got to man up," Bryant said with a laugh, explaining his facial expression after making the biggest three points of the playoff-high 41 he scored in a 103-97 win that gave the Lakers a 2-1 lead in this best-of-seven series. Game 4 is Monday night at Pepsi Center.

Bryant played 41 minutes and scored 41 points in the Lakers' comeback victory, and even had to convince Coach Phil Jackson to put him back in a bit earlier, during a critical juncture when the Lakers opened the fourth quarter with a 10-1 run to take their first lead since the first quarter.

After the win -- which Bryant ranked among the best playoff road wins in his 13 seasons in Los Angeles -- he was too fatigued to stand straight up for his postgame interview with ESPN, gasping for air between questions.

"I couldn't feel my legs one bit, not at all," Bryant said. "I didn't have anything."

A bit more rested on Sunday morning as he addressed reporters in flip-flops, Bryant said that was the most tired he had been following a playoff game. "No question. Absolutely," Bryant said. "I've been playing straight for two or three years, been playing nonstop. With the seven-game series we had against Houston, and these [Denver] guys, grabbing, holding and more than the Houston series. It's been a really physical series and they are making us work for everything."

Bryant and teammate Pau Gasol are the only players to participate in last year's NBA Finals and the Beijing Olympics. Bryant also represented the United States in the FIBA Tournament of the Americas two summers ago. The Lakers only needed 15 games to reach the NBA Finals last season, but they played their 15th game this postseason on Saturday and are guaranteed to play at least two more physically challenging games against the Nuggets, who have defended him with Smith, Dahntay Jones, Carmelo Anthony and Kenyon Martin.

"It hasn't come easy for him. He's had to work harder," Jackson said, adding that in addition to Houston, the five-game series against Utah probably took a toll on Bryant as well.

Bryant was incredulous when a reporter asked him if his performance on Saturday was a response to LeBron James, who snatched away the league's most valuable player award this season and needed just one second to make a game-winning three-pointer in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Friday. "Are you serious?" Bryant asked. "Honestly, I told him it was a helluva shot. Everybody tries to make it out like this big thing, but we're all friends. And he does what he does in Cleveland. I do what I do here. But it's good banter."

"Knowing him, I would say that he finds it motivating and uses it as a tool," Derek Fisher, Bryant's teammate for all but three seasons, said of the continuing debate about the league's best player. "For him, I'm sure that serves as a way to continue to push himself to stay at the top. I don't think that he feels as though it's slipping away. I feel he uses it to remind himself that if he did relax, it could slip away. But I know he knows there is still a separation between him and everyone else. I would agree."

With Anthony providing a worthy adversary in the conference finals, and either James or Orlando's Dwight Howard awaiting him in the NBA Finals should the Lakers advance, Bryant said being recognized as the best doesn't mean as much as winning a fourth championship. "I don't get motivated by that, actually. That's not what drives me," Bryant said of the rising stars in the league. "I enjoy watching their progression. I enjoy watching them develop, but I'm here to do what I do."

While Trevor Ariza has recorded two late-game steals to seal both victories against Denver, the Lakers have had few reliable offensive options aside from all-stars Bryant and Gasol, who made two clutch fourth-quarter baskets that allowed Bryant to charge up for the finish. Bryant admitted that he is expending more energy than he has any postseason. "I have to shoulder more responsibility with this ball club than I did in the past," he said. "This series in the particular, I've got to chase Chauncey, J.R., Melo. I've got to alternate between those three guys and do what I do offensively. That's tough."

Asked when he'll pick up a basketball again at the conclusion of this season, Bryant said, "Probably September."