Bryant scored 22 of his 28 points in the second half and grabbed two huge offensive rebounds in the final two minutes to lift the Los Angeles Lakers to an 87-86 victory over the struggling Denver Nuggets.
Bryant is more than capable of picking up the offensive slack for the 7-2 O'Neal, who has missed the last five games with a bad toe. No one can match the 330-pound O'Neal's dominant rebounding presence, but the 6-7 Bryant's efforts crashing the boards helped the Lakers escape the Pepsi Center with a win.
 Nick Van Exel is swimming in a sea of Lakers. William R. Sallaz NBAE/Getty Images |
Bryant misfired on his next attempt but grabbed the rebound and dished to Samaki Walker, who was fouled with 95 seconds left and made 1-of-2 free throws.
"We just gave up too many second-chance points," Denver coach Mike Evans said. "We can't survive doing that against the Lakers down the stretch. We are going to hit ourselves tomorrow when we watch the film."
After a shot by Denver's Nick Van Exel barely grazed the rim, Bryant launched an airball, but the ball hit a crowd under the basket and bounced back to him. He quickly fired in a jumper from the top of the key as the shot clock expired with 55 seconds to go.
"The shot went up, somebody tipped it and knocked the rebound out and Kobe just came from nowhere to get it," Lakers point guard Derek Fisher said. "I wasn't surprised when the shot went in; he can do that."
"Shot clock was low, I just went and got it," Bryant said. "I believe Samaki tipped it out and I ran after it and got it. I just wanted to create some space, jump over my defender get a good look at the basket."
The Nuggets missed two shots on their final possession before the Lakers forced a jump ball with four seconds left. Van Exel won the tip to James Posey, who could not get a shot off before time ran out as Denver lost for the sixth time in seven games.
"It was tough. They played pretty good defense at the end and our shots didn't fall," Evans said. "We all know how Kobe is, he made some big shots."
After making just 1-of-5 shots in the first half, Bryant was 10-of-17 in the second half as Los Angeles defeated Denver for the third time in as many meetings this season.
Fox had 17 points, seven rebounds and six assists and Walker finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Lakers, who improved to 3-2 since O'Neal was placed on the injured list last Tuesday.
"I don't think it matters because we're not going to play without Shaquille in the playoffs," Bryant said. "Our team is with Shaquille. We're going win a championship with Shaquille and that's all that matters. That's the bottom line."
Van Exel scored 25 points and Voshon Lenard added 22 for the Nuggets, who fell to 3-5 under interim coach Mike Evans. They have lost four of five since Evans was named as a permanent replacement for Dan Issel on December 22.
Denver (10-20) has dropped four in a row to Los Angeles and fell a season-low 10 games under .500
Van Exel and Lenard combined to make 12-of-20 shots in the first half and scored 44 of Denver's first 61 points.
The Lakers had a 71-67 lead with 89 seconds left in the third quarter before Avery Johnson provided all the offense during the Nuggets' 13-4 burst.
He made a jumper and two free throws in the closing minutes of the third period as Denver pulled within 73-71.
Johnson made 4-of-5 shots and a free throws in the first five minutes of the final quarter as the Nuggets built an 80-75 advantage. They did not relinquish the lead until Bryant's tiebreaker with 55 seconds left.