“Lakers#0 Nick Young, Ronnie Price Robert Sacre celebrate in the 4th quarter. and The Lakers defeated the Golden State Warriors 115-105 in a game played at Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA. December 23, 2014. (Photo by John McCoy Daily News)”
The cheers reached deafening levels as the Lakers enjoyed so many shots that became more and more improbable to make.
Try making three consecutive three-pointers. Try hitting a bank shot while falling down to the ground. Try swishing a half-court shot.
It seems only Kobe Bryant could achieve such miraculous feats after wowing this Laker crowd through 19 seasons, a span that covered five NBA championships, an 81-point game and too many game winners to count. But in fact, Bryant accomplished none of the other aforementioned feats.
Lakers coach Byron Scott sat Bryant for a game in hopes that another day at home could rejuvenate a pair of 36-year-old legs that ran on fumes in recent weeks. What happened in his absence amounted to nothing more than a Christmas Day miracle. The Lakers’ 115-105 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday at Staples Center featured everything that consistently lacked when Bryant furiously tried leading them.
The Lakers moved the ball. They scored at both an efficient and balanced rate. They defended. They had fun. All of this happened against the Warriors (23-4), which boasts the Western Conference’s best record no less. It came just as the Lakers (9-19) hoped they could accomplish more without placing too much burden on Bryant.
“It was great to have a game to make that case,” Lakers coach Byron Scott said. “We’re still going to lean on him. But we don’t have to do it as heavy as we are. That’s the message.”
The Lakers delivered all sorts of messages.
Who needs Bryant carrying the Lakers by himself when the team featured Carlos Boozer (18 points), Ronnie Price (17 points), Nick Young (15 points), Ed Davis (14 points), Wesley Johnson (14 points), Wayne Ellington (12 points) and Jeremy Lin (11 points) cracking double digits?
“We’re going to have to tell Kobe to pass me the ball,” Young said in a half serious, half joking tone. “Pass us the ball. Tell him to take a backseat a little bit.”
Who needs Bryant to dictate the Lakers’ outcome with a possible game-winning shot that hasn’t fallen on 12 consecutive attempts? Instead, the Lakers dictated the result with defensive stops that entailed forcing 19 turnovers and grabbing 11 steals.
“The defensive effort is where we won the game tonight,” Price said. “When you play team defense, it gives you energy on the other end and it gives you a chance not to set up an offense every time down the floor. You get to attack the defense when they’re off balance.”
Who needs the Lakers to showcase Bryant just to entertain the Staples Center crowd when you have others providing something more captivating? Price made three consecutive three-pointers to give the Lakers a 91-70 cushion with 2:42 left in the third quarter. Lin banked in an 18-foot bank shot while falling down, bringing new definition to “Linsanity” and ending the third quarter with a Lakers’ 95-73 cushion. Vlade Divac, the former Lakers who was traded to Charlotte to 18 years ago to secure the rights to draft Bryant, then sank a half-court shot to win $90,000, which will go to the Lakers Youth Foundation and a charity of his own choice.
Will Bryant become as charitable to his teammates once he returns?
“That’s the challenge that we have to make sure we all try to get on the same page,” Lin said. “You probably have to ask Coach more so than me, so yeah.”
Oh, Scott offered plenty of answers.
He rolled his eyes at the statistics that suggest the Lakers have played this season better without Bryant. The Lakers have yielded a (-)13.3 rating when he plays as opposed to a (+) 11.1 when Bryant sits.
“Are you asking me are we better without Kobe? Is that what you’re trying to ask me?” Scott said. “To the people that think that, it’s no way.”
Scott hardly saw tonight’s game as definitive proof the Lakers just needed Bryant’s absence to unleash the shackles that prevented them from hitting shots and defending consistently. After all, Johnson, Boozer, Lin and Price have all faced season-long inconsistency during both Bryant’s high-volume shooting and when he has facilitated. The Lakers have also ranked last in total team defense.
“I hope we can keep that lightning in a bottle for the next three or four months,” Scott said. “I don’t know if we can play that way for the rest of the season.”
Yet, with Bryant averaging 20.3 points on only 28.6 percent shooting the past five games, Scott admitted he needed to change. The tipping point came when Bryant posted 25 points on 8-of-30 shooting and nine turnovers in Sunday’s loss to Sacramento. The solutions for Scott went beyond resting Bryant for games. Or shortening his minutes from an average of 35.4 to 32. Or ensuring Bryant does not play the entire first or third quarters. Or sitting Bryant out for practices and shootarounds.
“When we go through slumps or periods where we’re not playing well, he takes it upon himself to be the aggressor,” Scott said. “That’s just him. One thing we talked about is allowing those guys to continue to play. We’ll try that when he gets back. If he saw how we played tonight, he’ll say that’s great. It takes a lot more pressure of fof him and a lot more wear and tear off of him as well. It saves him more than anything as well. It gives our guys confidence. We’ll try to play the same way. Hopefully we can.”
Can the Lakers do that?
“Absolutely. Why not?” Boozer asked rhetorically. “Absolutely we can. We’ve had games where we played like that.”
Yes, the Lakers captured a win two weeks ago in San Antonio that featured Bryant taking a facilitating role that involved posting 22 points on 7-of-22 shooting and nine assists. The Lakers won in Detroit on Dec. 2 when Bryant posted more assists (13) than points (12). On Nov. 30, Bryant posted a triple double that featured both scoring (31 points), passing (12 assists) and inside presence (11 rebounds).
But as indicated with Bryant’s 24.6 points per game average on 37.2 percent shooting, the Lakers have also experienced their star player take high-volume shots amid debilitating losses.
“It’s definitely different. When he’s in the game, he’s our best player,” Lin said. “So you definitely want to try to cater to him and get him going and allow him to do what he does. We have to find a balance and get the best of both worlds.”
Scott has often defended Bryant’s approach. Scott cited Bryant’s rustiness stemmed from playing only six games last season amid injuries to his left Achilles tendon and left knee. Scott preached for Bryant’s teammates to match his aggressiveness.
“Guys have to take it upon themselves to be aggressive and not look to him to bail us out,” Scott said. “Just have the confidence we can make plays.”
Yet, Scott reported he has stressed to Bryant in recent conversations that “you have to let these guys either succeed or fail.”
The Lakers succeeded against the Warriors.
Scott noticed they appeared “loose” and “focused” during morning shootaround on Tuesday, setting a tone for their attitude later that evening. The Lakers cared more about finding the open man than becoming the team’s hero. The Lakers cared more about making a defensive stop than conserving energy. All of which gave the team some unmatched confidence that Bryant consistently conveys and his teammates consistently lack.
“We have to make sure when it’s our time to shoot and our time to make a play, we make a play,” Lakers center Robert Sacre said. “We can’t rely on giving him the ball all the time. He’s a presence where he will make you feel like you have to give him the ball. You cant buy into that and make sure you make your own plays. He’s Kobe. You know what you’re going to get from him. You just can’t buy into that. Make sure you make the right play. He’s going to buy into whatever wins games. That’s what he cares about.”
And at least for one night, the Lakers fulfilled that job description, sparking a frenzied crowd that has usually become accustomed only toward cheering over Bryant’s heroics.
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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter and on Facebook. E-mail him at mark.medina@langnews.com