EL SEGUNDO -- It was another of those vintage Kobe Bryant performances, but it was also the first one in a while.
And so Bryant's 38-point effort in Saturday's game at Utah -- a 108-94 victory giving the Lakers a 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series with the Jazz -- remained a major topic of conversation Sunday, along with the opportunity to complete the series Monday night at Staples Center.
Bryant scored the Lakers' first 11 points, had 24 at halftime on 10-of-13 shooting and was 6 for 11 during a third quarter that saw the Lakers outscore Utah 28-16 to take a hammerlock on both the game and series. He finished 16 of 24 from the field.
It was the most points in a game for Bryant since a 49-point effort in a Feb. 26 loss at Phoenix, and a distinct change from the Lakers' 88-86 loss in Game 3, when he was just 5 of 24.
It was right after that game, Bryant said, that he knew he'd be more aggressive from the start in Game 4.
"I just felt like I needed to get going a little bit," he said, "and put teams on their heels a little bit more. ..
"I was operating in a space where it was harder for them to double-team me. I wasn't 30 feet from the basket. I was getting good screens, getting the ball in the deep post position and operating from there.
"I just changed my game up a little bit, got a little closer to the basket, and got into the spots where I operate from."
This was not an individual effort, he pointed out.
"You've got to have your teammates set it up for you," he said. "In this day and age you do, with the zone and all that stuff, scorers don't really have that much space to operate. You have to rely a lot on your teammates to get you open in terms of isolating -- you know, penetrate and create."
Still, there were times when the Jazz -- in particular, Ronnie Brewer -- appeared to be playing Bryant about as tough defensively as is possible, and he still made shots.
"Once you get into a rhythm, it feels like everything's going to go on, and you just have to look at the basket, once you get into that kind of groove," he said. "And that's what happened for me. Some of those shots, they were playing great defense. I just felt really good. ...
"You just throw it up there, and it's going to go in. That's what it felt like."
Bryant led the charge and the rest of the Lakers followed.
"I think the game we lost, Game 3, it hurt pretty bad," said Pau Gasol, second in scoring with 13 points, "because we kind of felt like we gave away a chance to really take a huge advantage in the series. So we had to kind of make up for it, and Kobe set us up from the beginning, starting really hot, and we all tuned into it."
Bryant was questioned in some quarters for not starting more aggressively earlier in the series, although that didn't keep the Lakers from 62- and 66-point first halves in the first two games of the series, and double-digit leads in all three games.
So it probably wasn't surprising that coach Phil Jackson wanted to temper the enthusiasm over Bryant's performance.
"It's interesting that with all the points Kobe came out and hit 'em with a barrage," said Jackson, "we were still behind at the end of the first quarter. It shows the important of a bench coming out and playing with the kind of freedom and passion defensively and offensively that is important for us to have."
The Lakers trailed 25-20 after one quarter, but outscored Utah 40-28 in the second, when the reserves generally get their largest slice of playing time.
And Jackson felt the biggest reason the Lakers didn't let Utah back in the game -- after frittering away most of 20-point leads in the first two games, and surrendering a 13-point advantage in Game 3 -- was defensive.
"Someone remarked to me ... that when we got a lead in the third quarter and we felt like we could score on a team [in the earlier games], our defense relaxed," Jackson said. "We really tried to make an emphasis on that, that defensively, you just can't think, 'Oh, offensively, everything's going to just go great; now we're just going to be in cruise control and get away with all this.'
"The defense still has to step up, and I think that stayed."