Playoffs 2000:Frozen moment: No time for the pain

Frozen moment: No time for the pain
By Kevin Jackson
ESPN.com

LOS ANGELES -- As Kobe Bryant writhed in pain on the court, a quiet panic enveloped the Staples Center on Friday night.


	Kobe Bryant is in pain after hurting his ankle.

Suddenly, all those confident Lakers fans who were merely counting the days until next week's title celebration grew uneasy and uncomfortable.

Many in the crowd rose to their feet and watched as Bryant was helped out the tunnel behind the Lakers bench. The obvious pain from his left ankle injury showed on Bryant's face as he was taken to the locker room for X-rays late in the first quarter.

For the rest of the first half, many fans kept glancing at the runway underneath Section 117 in hopes that Bryant would make a dramatic Willis Reed-like return.

When he didn't come back after a few minutes, a few fans started leaning up into the press box, asking reporters about his prognosis. The news was mixed.

The X-rays were negative, but Bryant would not return for the rest of Game 2. He began icing the ankle immediately and then started physical therapy in hopes of returning for Sunday's Game 3 in Indianapolis. He was officially listed as day-to-day.

But while the fans murmured, there remained one calm spot in the worried arena, and it's the biggest reason why Los Angeles is up 2-0 in the series after holding on for a 111-104 victory.

On the Lakers bench, Phil Jackson broke the tension by saying Bryant "sure had taken a funny time to go on vacation."

Then, the coach quickly reminded his team that it had played the first 15 games of the season without Bryant, who broke his hand during the preseason. That seemed to ease any doubts the Lakers had about playing without a guy who averages 22.5 points per game.

"We basically said that. We played without him before. This was no mystery to us," said Jackson, whose Lakers went 11-4 in those early games without Bryant. "Go out there and play the way you know how to play."

By providing his team with a quick flashback to November, Jackson managed to erase the fresh images of Bryant rolling around on the floor and grasping for his injured ankle after his foot had come down awkwardly on the foot of defender Jalen Rose.

"As a team, you sit there for a second and think, 'C'mon, Kobe. Get up and show us you're OK.' But he didn't, and as he hobbled off, we thought it might be serious," forward Rick Fox said. "If it would have happened for the first time tonight, I think we might have been a lot more uneasy there for a stretch. But we were confident. We won 67 games with a lot of help from Kobe, but with a lot of support from the rest of the guys, too."

As guard Ron Harper summed it up: "Our team learned how to play during the time Kobe was hurt."

While his teammates were regrouping, Bryant was testing his ankle in the locker room to see if he could play. But each time he tried to raise up on his toes, the 21-year-old shooting guard knew he probably wouldn't be allowed to return.

"It was just flat-out pain," he said. "I felt like I could play. In the past, like in high school or something, I would have played. I would have just shot the ball every time. Over here, they need me to play defense, so I couldn't do that."

When the rest of the Lakers joined Bryant at halftime, they assured their injured teammate that they'd be able to hold onto their 52-49 lead.

"As far as the guys, Glen (Rice) came in the locker room and said they were ready to play," Bryant said. "Ron came in and said he was going to step up, shift back into his Cleveland mode. They stepped up and played great. And Shaq was just Shaq."

Indeed Rice scored 21 points and hit five big 3-pointers. Harper erupted for 21 points, his most productive outing of these playoffs. And Fox (six points) and Robert Horry (seven) hit some timely baskets to put the game away in the final minutes.

Now, the Lakers know they'll have to win the championship with Bryant either missing or less than 100 percent.

Leave it to that great philosopher, "The Big Aristotle," to sum up the Lakers' mood: "Hopefully, Kobe will be ready for the next game," Shaquille O'Neal said. "If he's not, everyone just has to step up. If we play like we played tonight, we should be fine."

Kevin Jackson is a senior editor at ESPN.com.