Bryant Still Seems Unsure About a Return in Game 4

INDIANAPOLIS — And sometimes no news is just no news.

Monday brought little in the way of significant developments on the status of Laker guard Kobe Bryant and his sprained left ankle, with Bryant saying one minute he will “probably” play Wednesday night in Game 4 of the NBA finals and in another conceding that there is still a lot of stiffness and some pain. The bottom line, for now:

“I don’t know.”

The Lakers still have another day and a half before they need to know. They did not practice Monday, opting instead for light work on the start of the two-day break, so there wasn’t even a question of taking the joint out for a test drive. There were, however, questions.

Is it still painful? “Yeah, it is. You know, just stiff. You turn your ankle, you get stiff on both sides of the ankle, where it feels like your foot has locked. But that’s pretty normal.”

Why did he spend Game 3 in the trainer’s room instead of supporting his teammates on the bench? “I was just getting treatment on my foot. Whatever time that you have that you can get treatment, you might as well go ahead and do that. Gary [Vitti, the trainer] felt it was best for me to do that, so that’s what I did. I watched the game on TV, and screamed at the TV as usual. But I think it was the best decision.”

How hard did he lobby Coach Phil Jackson to let him play Sunday? “I just wanted to get Phil’s opinion, to see what he thought. Because I could have pushed it. That’s one of the things I told him. I said, ‘Man, I can push straight through it.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry about it. We’ve got a nice cushion being up 2-0. Don’t worry about it. Worst-case scenario, we go into Wednesday’s game being up 2-1. It’s not a do-or-die situation.’ ”

And now that the Lakers don’t have that cushion? “I’ll probably have to push it Wednesday.”

There was a lot of that talk going around Monday. In other words, welcome to the worst-case scenario.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt he’ll play on Wednesday, just because of the situation we’re in now,” Laker guard Derek Fisher said. “If we had won [Sunday] night’s game, maybe we try and steal another game and see if we can go without him. But I think right now, we’re in a situation where we have to figure out how to win a game in this building and we can’t wait until Friday. We have to try and get it done on Wednesday.

“We’ve all played with sprained ankles before, and it’s that time of the season where if you can walk, you pretty much have to play.”

It is hardly panic time for the Lakers, but there is reason to be concerned. They just scored 15 points in a quarter and 91 in all, with replacement Brian Shaw scoring six points on three-of-10 shooting, so they need Bryant’s offensive punch. They just gave up 33 points to Reggie Miller, after he scored 28 total the first two games, so they need Bryant’s defense, even if Ron Harper continues to get the initial assignment.

The Indiana Pacers, originally encouraged simply by the return to Conseco Fieldhouse after losing twice in Los Angeles, were bumped up all the way to rejuvenated by the end of Game 3, more aggressive and showing more attitude along the way. That comes in addition to the confidence with now having beat the Lakers in both meetings at Indianapolis, by nine points in January and by nine Sunday.

“Everybody yesterday was talking about how Kobe made the difference,” said Indiana guard Mark Jackson, hardly thrilled with the notion that the main reason the Pacers won was that the Lakers were short-handed. “Well, we’ve won in this building when Kobe was in there. We can beat them with or without Kobe.”

Meaning they now have the extra motivation to prove it with everyone watching, whether it’s Wednesday or in Game 5 on Friday.

Bryant said Jackson made the final call to sideline him Sunday, with input from the medical staff. Jackson said it belonged to Bryant, with input from the medical staff. Figure it’s a group decision for Wednesday either way.

“It will depend on if I can benefit the team,” Bryant said. “A lot of my game is based on speed and cutting and getting guys open shots, kind of penetrating the ball down guys’ throats. But we’ll see what happens.”