Bryant Vows to Not Forget the SuperSonics

When Kobe Bryant got word that the Seattle SuperSonics had said the Lakers were playing better without him, he promptly mapped out the ultimate revenge, putting them on his hit list for, oh, the next 12 years or so.

“I’m just going to have to gun them down the rest of my career,” he said.

The reserve swingman laughed when told of the comments from the SuperSonics--”They don’t even miss him,” Sam Perkins said of the Lakers. “It seems like they are more at ease without him”--but didn’t exactly laugh them off. It is, apparently, the difference between being bothered by them, which he said he isn’t, and being motivated by them, which he said he is. Just in case there was any lingering doubt.

“Just competitive type of juices,” Bryant said. “If you don’t have them for a day, for whatever reason, you can get them some other way . . . Anything you can get, you use to your advantage.”

He has them.

“Makes me want to crush ‘em,” he said.

This is either very bad long-term news for the SuperSonics or a temporary concern for the Lakers, Del Harris having already noted Bryant’s tendency to sometimes take being aggressive too far. But the coach at least looks forward to dealing with the potential problem when Bryant is expected to return in earnest tonight after playing only three minutes Sunday and missing the two games before that because of flu.

Bryant on Monday went through a full practice for the first time since last Tuesday, which proved to be shortly before the bug hit.

“He worked up a pretty good sweat,” Harris said. “I think he’ll round into shape pretty quickly.”

Said Bryant, asked if he’s near 100% for Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals: “I think I’m fairly close. I just have to see how my stamina is.”

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If the Utah Jazz, facing the San Antonio Spurs, and the Lakers close out their respective series within the next two games, with both holding 3-1 leads, the Western Conference finals will start Saturday afternoon in Salt Lake City.

If either matchup goes to a Game 7, the next round will start early next week, the exact day to be announced.

The Jazz would have home-court advantage over either the Lakers or SuperSonics. If the Lakers win and the Spurs rally to advance, the conference finals will open at the Great Western Forum. If the SuperSonics and Spurs win, unlikely since it would take two teams beating the odds to come back from 3-1 deficits, the series starts in Seattle.