Scores to Settle

The last few weeks keep getting pieced together bit by bit, the details of Kobe Bryant’s abrupt transition from share-the-ball to shoot-the-ball becoming revealed a little more every day.

The chain of events began with Bryant’s well-publicized second suspension by the NBA, continued with further activity by the league in an after-the-fact flagrant-foul assessment, and reached time-to-evolve status after a pair of embarrassing Lakers losses, first to the Dallas Mavericks, 108-72, and then to the Denver Nuggets, 113-86, four days later on March 15.

The flash points built up in Bryant’s mind, one on top of the other, stinging reminders that the limping and lethargic Lakers were no longer the feel-good story of the NBA season.

First and foremost to him were questions about the “dirty” nature of his game, a debate that played out publicly on sports talk-radio shows and Internet chat rooms in the wake of the league’s penalizing him with a flagrant foul after he elbowed Philadelphia forward Kyle Korver while dribbling in a March 9 game.

Bryant seethed at the debate and the disciplinary action, which didn’t carry a fine or suspension, unlike two previous one-game suspensions that cost him a combined $322,160 and negative national press.

Then came another pair of hits that cost Bryant and the Lakers in the pride department: the 36-point loss to Dallas was the worst home defeat in the team’s 47-year history in Los Angeles, and the 27-point loss in Denver was marked by a late-game duel between Bryant and Denver forward Carmelo Anthony that irked the Lakers’ All-Star, Coach Phil Jackson said.

Bryant and Anthony became enmeshed in a one-on-one battle long after the outcome of the game was decided, with both stars continuing to play until the final few minutes. Anthony outscored Bryant that night, 26-25, but Bryant has since overtaken him as the league’s top scorer.

On top of it all, that night in Denver turned out to be the final part of a seven-game losing streak that dropped the Lakers’ record to 33-32.

“There’s a couple things that went into it,” Jackson said Saturday. “Obviously, the Denver situation that game. We were embarrassed in a situation where we were challenging for a spot in the standings. That little tit-for-tat he got into with Anthony out there. There were some things going on out there, I think, that [he] just said, ‘I’m going to use this as a motivational tool.’ Plus there’s some things going on off the court that I think contributed to it.”

Those things would be the NBA’s disciplinary action and the public discussion of whether Bryant was a dishonest player.

“You’ve got to try and funnel that and use that as motivation,” Bryant said. “Obviously we had all the motivation we needed, losing seven games, but personally, that added a little to it.”

The points are now coming so rapidly that Bryant said he didn’t know when he reached the 50-point barrier Friday against New Orleans on the way to becoming only the second player in league history with four consecutive games of 50 or more points.

“I heard the crowd kind of chant a little bit on that last jumper I hit,” he said. “My teammates came over and started giving me high-fives, and I asked [assistant coach] Brian Shaw, ‘I hit 50 already?’ ”

Wilt Chamberlain holds the NBA record with seven consecutive games of 50 or more points, set while he was with the Philadelphia Warriors in December 1961. Chamberlain, in fact, averaged 50.4 points that season, making Bryant’s 30.8-point average this season seem minuscule.

Still, Bryant is averaging 56.3 points and shooting 54.3% in his four-game spree.

“I see everything in slow motion, like I never have before,” he said. “Pretty trippy.”

Of greatest importance to the Lakers, he seems as fresh as ever. He told Jackson he could play all 48 minutes against New Orleans and almost did, sitting out only 1:08.

It’s a rarity to hear of such energy from a player so late in the season, but Bryant supplied a possible explanation.

“When I was a kid, I had an X-ray exam one time on my chest, and they said I had abnormally big lungs,” he said without a hint of fabrication.

Tonight against Golden State, he could make it a fifth consecutive game of 50-plus points. That would leave him only two games behind Chamberlain.

Will it happen?

“I don’t know. I don’t care,” Bryant insisted. “I call [Chamberlain] the human video game. The thing about him is, for the younger generation, when they look at Wilt and look at the numbers that he put up, it’s just mind-boggling stuff. It’s laughable almost. He’s something else.”

TONIGHT

vs. Golden State, 6:30, FSN West

Site -- Staples Center.

Radio -- 570, 1330.

Records -- Lakers 37-32, Warriors 33-37.

Record vs. Warriors -- 3-0.

Update -- The Lakers are 7-0 against the Warriors over the last two seasons. Maurice Evans (sore knee) probably won’t play for the Lakers, and Smush Parker (sprained ankle) and Brian Cook (sprained ankle) are considered day to day. The Warriors are still in the hunt for the final Western Conference playoff spot.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com