Bryant’s Finishing Stick

Kobe Bryant didn’t score 45 points. Or even 40.

All he needed Thursday was 27 points, one fewer than LeBron James, but just enough for the Lakers to squeeze by the Cleveland Cavaliers, 99-98, at Staples Center.

Bryant had only 11 through two quarters and had X-rays on his right wrist at halftime, but made three shots in the final 90 seconds, including the winner, a fadeaway 20-footer with James guarding him that broke a 97-97 tie with 8.6 seconds to play.

James missed a potential tying free throw with 5.2 seconds left, then was short on a 15-footer with Bryant guarding him as time expired. And, with that, a soft Laker loss to Portland the night before drifted a little further into the past.

Afterward, about half an hour after the pregame LeBron-Kobe buzz had officially lived up to the hype, Bryant spoke of riding bikes with childhood friends and of seeing who could hit a pole with a rock.

“As you’re riding by the pole, you’ve got to kind of throw it diagonally a little bit to hit the pole,” he said. “The reason why that makes sense is because that shot, I was fading, going to my left, and if you’re going to your left, you’ve got to kind of shoot it at a diagonal clip so it kind of straightens out your shot a little bit. Make sense?”

The net result did to Phil Jackson. “That was a great shot,” the Laker coach said.

Bryant said he was happy just to be around for the finish after collecting another ache from the Cavaliers. Bryant, elbowed in the face two weeks ago by Memphis guard Mike Miller and poked in the eye Wednesday by Portland forward Ruben Patterson, became enmeshed with Cavalier forward Sasha Pavlovic while fighting through a screen in the second quarter.

X-rays taken at halftime were negative, and Bryant was diagnosed with a sprained right wrist.

“I told my teammates I really needed them to pick up the slack for me tonight,” Bryant said. “My hand was bothering me. It was tough for me to shoot the ball. I needed them to kind of pick up the steam a little bit, and down the stretch I could take over.”

Bryant had help from Lamar Odom, who came close to a triple-double with 20 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.

But Bryant, whose string of five games with 40-plus points was broken, took over in the end. He hit a 22-footer with James defending him with 50 seconds left to put the Lakers up, 97-95. He’d also hit a pull-up jumper from 19 feet for a 95-93 Laker lead with 1:30 left.

“His last three shots were just amazing,” James said. “The guy was shooting shots like he was the only person in this arena. He has been through this before. He has [championship] rings. Being down one or two is nothing for him.”

James had 28 points, nine assists and two rebounds for the Cavaliers.

The game was billed as Kobe vs. LeBron, and the hype couldn’t have taken a stranger turn unless Ron Artest entered the building and sat down in the second row -- which, in fact, he did a few minutes into the first quarter.

Artest, who has not played since stating his desire to be traded from the Indiana Pacers last month, was in town to appear on a cable TV show. (Artest, who has been more closely linked to the Clippers than the Lakers in trade scenarios, declined to comment.)

Artest, for one, was impressed when Bryant cleanly hit the winner from 20 feet, with James on him and center Zydrunas Ilgauskas coming over late to help.

“That’s nice,” said Artest, who, like almost everybody else at Staples Center, was standing for the final sequences.

Bryant and James, perhaps the league’s best offensive threats, ended up guarding each other, a surprise of sorts.

“One thing I liked about LeBron is that he matched up with me as well,” Bryant said. “He saw that at the start of the game I was going to take the challenge of guarding him and he, in turn, took the challenge of guarding me. You don’t see that too much. Not from a lot of players in the league.”

The Cavaliers had a chance to win after Drew Gooden rebounded James’ missed free throw and called timeout with 4.2 seconds left.

But James was short, as was the Cavalier effort.