There’s Plenty of Room on His Back

They were all thinking it. Only Samaki Walker was shameless enough to say it.

The Lakers were walking back onto the Alamodome court Sunday, 21/2 minutes left in the game, trailing the San Antonio Spurs by two, when Walker grabbed Kobe Bryant.

Not to encourage.

But to beg.

“Don’t let us lose this,” Walker pleaded.

Which made Bryant smile.

It was the same smile we saw when he was missing 16 of his first 23 shots. It was the same smile we saw when Coach Phil Jackson was so perplexed, he impulsively moved Bryant to small forward in hopes of changing something, anything.

A freaky, frustrating, wonderful smile.

“This is what I live for,” Bryant told Walker.

At which point he returned to the court to make the San Antonio Spurs all but disappear.

A three-point jab to the head. A three-point hook to the chest. A soaring offensive rebound and layup blow to the gut.

The longtime Lakers say they are used to it, but how can they be? How can anybody become used to losing his breath, his voice, his fear?

How can anybody on this team, or in our town, become used to a basketball player who can be suffocating underneath a game for three quarters before suddenly jumping up and laughingly stuffing a pillow in its face?

Kobe Bryant did it again in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals Sunday, and if any of you are getting used to it, then your blood is colder than Bryant’s.

With five minutes remaining, the Lakers trailed the Spurs by 10 points and Bryant had missed two-thirds of his field-goal attempts and free throws.

In those final five minutes, he made two free throws, two three-pointers, then flew into the Alamodome sky to grab a ball and lay it in the basket over two 7-footers to give the Lakers an 87-85 victory and a three-games-to-one lead that is probably insurmountable.

“If that’s not amazing, there is no amazing,” said newcomer Walker.

At least we weren’t the only ones screaming.

Were you? When? There were so many times during yet another dramatic ending scripted by basketball’s greatest closer.

After scoring 11 points in the fourth quarter in Friday’s victory, Bryant wore a New York Yankee jersey featuring the number of Derek Jeter. He should buy a new one featuring Mariano Rivera, because that’s the player he has become. There is no better ninth-inning, bases-loaded guy in any sport.

Did you scream at Bryant’s fall-away three-point shot at the 24-second buzzer to tie the score, at 85-85?

He didn’t scream. He shrugged.

“I just love to play in pressure situations,” Bryant said. “I’ve always been that way.”

Or did you scream later, when he lost the ball out of bounds on what seemed like a rushed drive to the basket?

He didn’t scream then, either. He laughed. We saw him.

“I think it doesn’t matter to Kobe if he misses his first 10 shots,” Jackson said. “He thinks he’s going to make his next 10 shots.”

You were surely screaming in the final seconds, when Bryant dribbled the ball off his foot, then Derek Fisher recovered it, shot it and missed it.... setting up perhaps the most spectacular Bryant play of at least this week.

A body flying past Spurs into the lane. A left hand reaching up from that body and grabbing the ball. A right hand returning the ball to the basket for the victory.

“Young legs,” Bryant explained.

No, Bryant didn’t scream then either. Didn’t laugh or shrug. In fact, he ran to the bench with his most serious look of the game, glaring at teammates, a sort of, If you guys mess up these final 5.1 seconds I’m going to kill you next.

They didn’t. Of course not. They follow him now.

With Shaquille O’Neal physically limited--he has scored one point in the fourth quarter of the last two games combined-- they must follow him into June.

Remember how some of Bryant’s troubles in the last two years have related to his desire to win an MVP award? If the Lakers achieve a third consecutive championship, he’ll finally get his MVP--the Finals MVP--because they cannot win it without him winning it.

O’Neal is buying it.

“That’s what’s good about the yin and the yang, the Frick and the Frack, Superman and Batman,” his former rival said Sunday.

It is instructive to recall that O’Neal used to refer to Bryant as Wonderboy. Guess now he considers them equals.

Gregg Popovich, coach of the Spurs, also is buying it, offering a description that would fit nicely on a Hall of Fame plaque.

“The first thing about [Bryant] is that his talent is astounding,” he said.

“The second thing is his body exaggerates that talent with his height and his length.

“The third thing is he has the uncommon will to win. It’s the same exact will to win as Michael Jordan.”

Stop right there. Somebody besides Jackson comparing Bryant to Jordan?

As Sunday again illustrated, Bryant has proven himself beyond even those shadows of a doubt that were once the size of O’Neal.

Or so believes a team that ain’t too proud to beg.

*

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.