Are Lakers' chances hinging on Kobe's back?

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SALT LAKE CITY -- Forgive an entire region of Los Angeles Lakers fans if they're holding their lower back feeling sympathy pains today. The Lakers' postseason may be hanging on Kobe Bryant's aching lumbar. Ouch! That probably hurts some people just thinking about it. Expect hourly updates between now and Wednesday's Game 5 with Utah. Kobe's back is to the Southern California what Tom Brady's ankle was to New England before the Super Bowl. "I should be OK," Bryant said after Sunday's loss to the Jazz evened their Western Conference series at 2-2. "I should be able to play Wednesday." How effectively is another question. Bryant fought through the bothersome "tweak" of his back Sunday, shooting poorly but managing to get the ball to teammates down the stretch. The Lakers overcame a late 12-point deficit to force overtime. But their valiant attempt to swipe a game from the Jazz in Utah ended abruptly -- and strangely. The Lakers, including Bryant, suddenly acted as if the Most Valuable Player were Superman, able to leap defenders with a single bound. Bryant took seven of the Lakers' 10 shots in the five-minute extra session, and made just one of them as Utah outscored the Lakers, 15-7, to ensure that this series can't end Wednesday at Staples Center. Lakers coach Phil Jackson was openly critical of his team for deferring to Bryant and expecting him to win the game in OT, saying they "bailed out" on him. Bryant didn't exactly come to his teammates' rescue. "I know what he means," Bryant said. "He wants them to come to me and not stand around. Next time we'll be ready." Bryant admitted he was unable to do some of the things he normally does, but chose to take some tough jump shots anyway. "Absolutely," he said. "I couldn't go to the basket." Bryant is playing with a damaged pinkie on his shooting hand, an injury that he ignored at midseason, postponing surgery until after the playoffs are over. But as the Lakers soared in the final month and Bryant played well enough to solidify his first Most Valuable Player award, that injury seemed irrelevant. The back is something else. Bryant walked gingerly when there were breaks in the action. The Lakers took a timeout in overtime when he hit the floor, and then rose to his feet like a creaking grandpa and bent over. "The back is different," he said. "You have to make adjustments. You can't run like you want, cut like you want." Said teammate Luke Walton: "I've seen him hurt before and play hurt. But I've never seen him act like he did tonight. I knew he really had to be hurting." Bryant still shot 10 free throws, but it was the fewest he's taken in the series. He clearly was less aggressive, settling for jumpers and making only 13 of 33 shots. Too many for a guy who might spend as much time with the medical staff as he will with the coaching staff the next two days. Bryant said he hurt the back on the second play of the game. "It was a turnaround jump shot and it just caught," he said. He played more than 46 of the game's 53 minutes, but when he was on the bench he had his back wrapped and heated. After the game he went to the training room to get stretched and didn't appear in the media interview room until an hour after the game. He stood to answer just a few questions for about five minutes before being ushered away by team officials. If it was gusty and inspired effort by the Lakers, climbing back to force overtime, the way it ended hurt. "It was 0-0 and we had five minutes," forward Lamar Odom said. "We just didn't play well." The Lakers played better with Bryant passing (10 assists) than when he was shooting. The Lakers' failure to recognize that, and their becoming creatures of habit in overtime, cost them. "That's our fault," Walton said. "Kobe is such a talented guy, we give him the ball and expect him to pull it out." Even Utah coach Jerry Sloan said the Jazz still was forced to play Bryant the same way as normal, just because of his uncanny jump shooting. He said Bryant's injury didn't ease his anxiety any. "That's not a pleasant feeling," Sloan said when asked about seeing the ball in Bryant's hands so much in overtime. "We've been there a couple of times and we usually come up short." This time they got a new series out of it. And Lakers Nation will be watching its back.(Contact Gregg Patton at gpatton@PE.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)