Kobe Gets Hot in Nick’s Time

PORTLAND, Ore. — Inside a mostly empty arena, the only basketball noise is made by 18-year-old Kobe Bryant, shooting extra free throws after practice. Off to the side sits Nick Van Exel, the veteran Laker guard, who has been outscored by a teenage teammate in this NBA playoff series, despite 99 minutes of playing time to Kobe’s 33.

Van Exel is unhappy with himself. He had a hard time falling asleep Wednesday night. Not having scored a point in L.A.’s 98-90 loss to Portland, he looks and sounds down in the dumps, saying, “I don’t think I’ve ever felt this bad, as far as my play is concerned. I just didn’t do anything. All I did was cheer from the bench.”

He cheered for the kid.

“You know, Kobe, he’s a lot bigger than I am,” says Van Exel, who along with 21,538 at the Rose Garden sat back and saw Bryant light a fire under the whole Laker team. “He was able to create, penetrate, get in there and get a foul. I can’t do that, for whatever reason. He has a knack for getting fouled, for getting to the free-throw line.

“I noticed one thing about Kobe. He was aggressive. Nobody else was. By the time we got to looking at the scoreboard, we were already 20 down. We needed what he gave us.”

Begging the question, how soon will the Lakers need it again?

There are no immediate plans to increase Bryant’s playing time for tonight’s Game 4, at least that the Lakers are publicly acknowledging. But anyone who got an eyeful of what the kid did in Game 3 could guess what Del Harris must be thinking, that the coach won’t wait forever for Van Exel and Robert Horry and some of the other Lakers to produce a little more offense.

At this point in the series, Bryant, somewhat unbelievably, is the No. 4 scorer for the Lakers, despite having appeared a total of six minutes in the first two games. Bryant’s 22 points on Wednesday were the most by a Laker rookie in a playoff game since Byron Scott’s 26 on May 18, 1984.

Could this mean Kobe will become more of a factor, from now on?

Harris says it still depends on the situation.

Bryant says, “I don’t know. It’s my duty as a player to be ready, day in and day out.”

He knows the drill. He has been doing it for months. When the NBA playoffs began, Bryant reacted with glee, thrilled simply to be here. But being an NBA apprentice has a price, and for the youngest Laker ever, that price was sitting on the bench, even during games L.A. won by 18 and 14 points. About all Kobe could get was garbage time.

“I understand,” says Bryant, who was hustled into Game 3 by Harris in the first quarter, with the Lakers getting smoked, 28-12. “We’re playing for high stakes. Elbows are starting to be thrown in ways I haven’t seen before.”

Bryant entered with 2:27 remaining in the quarter, and the first thing he saw was Clifford Robinson, bringing the house down with a dunk. That put the listless Lakers down by 18 points, with Shaquille O’Neal and Eddie Jones catching their breath on the bench.

Harris’ lineup became Rookies R Us.

Travis Knight was already out there when Bryant quickly answered Robinson’s dunk with a driving layup. Kenny Anderson, though, continued to torment the Lakers, scoring without a challenge, at which point Harris also yanked Van Exel from the game and inserted Derek Fisher.

Harris had a few words with Bryant in the huddle, between periods.

“He told me that he just wanted me to create some opportunities, that it was turning into too much of a jump-shot game,” recalls Bryant, who was as surprised as anybody that O’Neal was the only Laker starter to make a basket in the quarter.

Several of the Portland big men had early foul trouble, which Harris wanted to exploit. Bryant did as told. He made a nifty fake, slipped a defender and missed a shot, but he followed it. The rebound fell to O’Neal, who fed a shovel pass to Kobe, who jammed it.

Harris returned to his starters in the second half, and paid for it. With Bryant on the bench for much of the third quarter, the Lakers fell behind by 31.

The coach pulled Van Exel in favor of Bryant with 3 1/2 minutes left in the quarter. Overeager, the kid committed his fourth foul, then traveled on his next possession. Going into the last quarter, the Lakers were still getting hammered, 84-58.

It was Scott and a teammate half his age who brought them back. By the time Bryant swished a 20-footer with 5:13 remaining, Portland’s advantage was cut to 11. Bryant got careless once or twice and had shots rejected twice by Robinson, but this didn’t make him less aggressive. He made a 23-footer with 1:08 left, then another with 34.2 seconds left. Once-glum teammates were up and bumping chests. The score was 94-88.

Unfortunately, the Lakers ran out of time.

Van Exel says he felt so frustrated by his own play, he watched two movies on television, unable to sleep. He joked: “I told the hotel people to take ESPN and CNN off my TV, so I wouldn’t have to see any sports.”

He wasn’t alone, feeling low.

“Everybody’s down,” says Bryant, who has been around long enough to know a letdown when he sees one. “Down about how we came out of the gate, about how we were drained of emotion, about not playing physically.

“I just have to keep my energy high and my hopes high.”

Same as his team.