Lakers Are Kobe’s Team Now

The torch is passing. Now it’s a question of whether Kobe Bryant will take it and keep running to another locker room or the flame will be snuffed out by a jury in Colorado.

Bryant was just another instrument in the symphony when the Lakers got off to an 18-3 start this season, but lately he has been the emcee on the microphone stepping to the center of the stage and freestyling.

For four weeks the Lakers have moved to his beat, relying on his energy and willpower to win 12 of the 15 games in which he has played. He has had his moments in the past, but never for this long with so much talent around him, and never as brilliantly as he was Monday night in a 113-110 overtime victory over the Orlando Magic.

Let the rest of the Lakers worry about how many shots Bryant takes or when he takes them. Whatever the reason, whatever the motivation, Bryant is getting it done.

He scored 38 points Monday, including 26 for the Lakers through the fourth quarter and overtime. He outscored Tracy McGrady, 24-5, in the fourth quarter when they went at it head to head. Bryant’s defense in holding McGrady to less than a touchdown after McGrady had lighted up any and all comers for 32 points through the first three quarters was just as impressive as his offense on the other end of the court.

“I had to get something going offensively for the team,” Bryant said of his huge fourth quarter in a television interview. “Phil [Jackson] didn’t want me to exert myself too much on defense, but I assured him I could do both.”

McGrady almost got the last shot and the last word. After Bryant’s driving layup erased the last of a 15-point Orlando lead with 41 seconds remaining, Orlando had one last possession with 1.5 seconds remaining. Shaquille O’Neal got a hand on the inbounds pass, but McGrady fought through it and threw the ball in off the backboard as the buzzer sounded. The officials waved it off, went to the scorer’s table for a mandatory instant-replay review and stood by their decision.

By then it had become evident that whoever won the scoring duel between Bryant and McGrady would lead his team to victory.

Bryant scored the first basket of overtime to give him 38 points, one more than McGrady, and the Lakers were on their way to a sorely needed victory as they continue to chase home-court advantage in the playoffs.

O’Neal had 27 points and 23 rebounds, but made only nine of 18 free throws and a few close-in baskets, the same types of plays that have prevented him from putting his stamp on more games this season and has made them something less of his team.

Bryant is putting his signature all over this season.

The other Lakers might grumble about it, might make themselves scarce when it’s time to talk about it, but they’ve had their chances and didn’t make the most of it.

There was that game in Atlanta when Bryant was at a pretrial hearing for his sexual assault case in Colorado. At the conclusion of a lackluster performance, Gary Payton missed an open jumper in the lane and O’Neal couldn’t control the rebound, and the Lakers lost to the lowly Hawks.

It was almost as if, from that point on, they let Bryant do his thing.

You could see it in the final minute of that victory in Chicago. Bryant and O’Neal were on the left side of the court. Bryant kept dribbling and with each bounce it became more evident that he wasn’t going to give up the ball. So O’Neal yielded, left his spot in the low post and came out to set a screen for Bryant, who made the game-sealing jumper.

Payton’s way of giving in to the inevitable is to pass to Bryant, drop his hands to his sides and watch.

Jackson, who has fought an ongoing battle with Bryant to keep him within the framework of the triangle offense, even verbally signed off on it before the game.

“There’s a certain time in the ballgame when that’s appropriate,” he said when asked about Bryant taking matters into his own hands. “The key players have to produce, because that’s the reliance of the chemistry of your ballclub.

“That could be in the last two minutes of the ballgame, that could be at some point in the first half when things are going a little bit awry. You need to have players step up and steady the game a little bit. But there’s no set or predetermined situation that you could just factor in and say this is the time or not.

“On the road, you’re going to have to fight teams off in the fourth quarter almost every single night to get a road victory. At that time, your players that have confidence in one another and know how to play together from accumulated experience step into that mode and do the job.”

Well, how about at home for the entire fourth quarter?

When McGrady checked back in with 10:19 to play, the Laker coach sent Bryant to the scorer’s table as well, like a manager calling for his closer with the heavy hitter at the plate.

And Bryant did his best Eric Gagne imitation, shutting down McGrady for most of the fourth.

Gagne is the only athlete in L.A. who enjoys anywhere close to the adulation of Bryant right now. Bryant’s star status is undimmed by the rape accusation, or the uncertainty of where he will play next season.

So much in doubt.

All we know is he plays in a Laker uniform for now, and the Lakers are better off for it.

J.A. Adande can be reached at [email protected]. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.