Lakers success leads to lighter load for Bryant

If this keeps up, Kobe Bryant won't even have the tired feet to make use of the latest sneaker technology in his new Nike Air Zoom Kobe III's.

Kobe Bryant hasn't said much about it, but he has been enjoying the Los Angeles Lakers' success and his lighter workload this season. Bryant is averaging 36.8 minutes this season — his lowest since his second NBA season in 1997-98.

Kobe Bryant has averaged about 41 minutes per game in each of the previous three seasons since the Lakers last appeared in the NBA Finals. He didn't necessarily need the four days without a game that the Lakers have had.

"I feel good," Bryant said. "I'm just trying to build my legs back and use these days here to do a lot of strength training."

Bryant said his strained groin has healed. He continues to wear a sleeve over the right wrist he sprained late in the exhibition season, but when asked if it was still bothering him, Bryant said: "Not really. I just wear it because I'm used to it."

Coach Phil Jackson has made a concerted effort to limit the workload for his main players this season, partly to look out for Lamar Odom and Luke Walton, who have had frequent health problems in their careers.

"We're watching our time on our starters and trying to eliminate hopefully mistakes that can happen that lead to injuries," Jackson said.

Odom is down from 39.3 minutes last season to 36.2 this season; Walton is down from 33 last season to 24.5. Yet the Los Angeles Lakers have been successful, making increased use of an improved bench headed by Jordan Farmar.

Walton and Kwame Brown have gotten hurt anyway, but Bryant and Odom haven't. Even with Andrew Bynum's emergence, Jackson said one thing the Lakers' loss to Boston on Sunday showed was that the team still struggles when Bryant and Odom are both struggling early in games.

"Sometimes it's hard for them to pick themselves up," Jackson said of the other players.

Bryant trails Cleveland's Lebron James by two points for the NBA scoring lead, but that is attributable to Bryant's decreased playing time. Both players are averaging .737 points per minute played; James is averaging 39.7 minutes this season.

NOTES

Vladimir Radmanovic twisted his right ankle in practice Thursday but was able to walk off on his own. … At the third All-Star voting tabulation, Bryant leads all Western Conference players with 1,234,111 votes. But facing the competition of a deep field of West guards, Bryant trails Eastern Conference candidates Kevin Garnett, James and Dwight Howard in total votes. …

Regarding this Los Angeles Lakers team's closeness, Kobe Bryant said: "When we won all those championships, we had a bunch of grown men. Everybody had families; everybody had different interests. It wasn't like everybody was together. Here, it's different. We're a very young team, everybody kind of hangs out together and Fish (Derek Fisher) and I are kind of the older brothers of the team. It's a very close group." …

Scottie Pippen has served Jackson's Lakers as a special assistant coach and is now lobbying to become the new Chicago Bulls coach. But Jackson offered some caution, just as he has regarding Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's past wishes to short-cut the process to become an NBA coach without much training. Jackson referenced "understanding the nuances of how you teach and becoming an educator."

See more at www.ocregister.com