Lakers Come to Senses

Kobe Bryant missed an uncontested dunk, about all that needed to be said to crystallize the Lakers’ messy effort against the hapless New Orleans Hornets.

But in the same sense that a victory can erase most of what preceded it, Bryant’s explanation outweighed the sense of surprise that came with his miss in the third quarter of the Lakers’ 89-76 victory before 18,997 Sunday night at Staples Center.

Bryant had 20 points, seven assists and a postgame rationale for the dunk that went kerplunk, and it could only be interpreted as good long-term news for Laker fans.

First, the play: With the end of a listless third quarter in sight, Bryant was fed downcourt by Chucky Atkins after a Hornet miss. Bryant, way ahead of the defense, loaded up for a one-handed windmill dunk ... but the ball rattled out of the basket.

Bryant’s yelp of frustration could be heard in the first few rows at the other end of the court. Afterward, he was smiling about it.

“I just got up a little too high, man,� Bryant said. “My foot was feeling great tonight. I got up a little too high, my forearm hit the front of the rim and the ball hit the back of the rim and bounced up.�

Bryant got another chance after a backcourt turnover midway through the fourth quarter. With nobody in front of him, he attempted a two-handed dunk. This time, it went down.

Bryant, diagnosed with plantar fasciitis in his left foot almost three weeks ago, said he had felt very little pain in recent days.

“It’s been feeling good for the past three mornings when I wake up,� he said. “When I get out here and play the first half, it’s usually really, really stiff. The second half it just loosens up and I can run all day. Tonight that wasn’t the case. It was loose from the beginning.�

The Lakers weren’t so loose.

The Hornets came in with a 1-10 record and without two injured All-Stars, guard Baron Davis and center Jamaal Magloire, but nothing came easily for the Lakers, even including uncontested dunks.

Atkins had 17 points, all of them in the second half, as the Lakers worked themselves out of an unexpected jam.

“I was real crabby at the beginning of the game about our approach, about how easy it was for them to pass the ball around and all that,� Laker Coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. “That’s why I’m trying to be aggressive and more demonstrative. It would be nice if I could sit back and say, ‘Well fellas, work it out, grow up.’ I think I’ve got to do some pushing.�

Bryant’s foot might have been loose, but Bryant was tightly wound, perhaps crabby as well while facing the prospect of losing to the Hornets.

He picked up a technical foul because he contested a call too boisterously in the third quarter, and he got into a mild shoving match after Junior Harrington tied him up to force a jump ball midway through the fourth.

“The thing that’s important for me is to make sure I stand up for my teammates,� Bryant said. “Some of our big guys have been getting a lot of bad calls and getting bad raps. Chris Mihm’s in foul trouble almost every game, Lamar [Odom] is in foul trouble almost every game, Caron [Butler] is in foul trouble every other game. There are calls that can kind of go either way and I don’t want them to feel like they’re alone out there. Sometimes you’ve got to lay into [referees] a little bit.�

If their tight loss on Friday to Sacramento was a source of frustration for the Lakers, Sunday’s victory over the Hornets was almost equally perplexing.

“We’ve got to jump on them and let them know we mean business,� Atkins said. “We tend to play to our competition.�