Mike Celizic

I know that Kobe Bryant doesn't need any advice on how to play winning basketball. He's let us know often enough that he is the ultimate authority on the game and the greatest talent in it. Just the same, it wouldn't hurt him to slip a DVD of LeBron James' first playoff game into his super-wide screen HD TV and take some notes.

What Bryant would see is a lesson on how a superstar is supposed to play in the postseason.

It's a lesson he needs to learn after the the utterly indifferent performance he brought to the court Sunday against the Phoenix Suns in a game that was there for the taking. All the Los Angeles Lakers needed to steal a game on Phoenix's home court was one player to take the game over. Anytime in the second half would have been fine time to do it. But instead of grabbing hold and not letting go, Kobe stood back and watched.

The commentators on the game broadcast kept talking about how Kobe had told them that he was going to get his points within the offense instead of trying to be a one-man show. And the Lakers' much abused supporting cast gave him plenty to work within.

Lamar Odom had a terrific game. Kwame Brown played hard. Smush Parker did more than was expected of him. Luke Walton hit some big shots. And the Lakers' team defense, after a porous first quarter, more than contained Phoenix for the entire middle 24 minutes of the game.

For the most part, Kobe stood around the perimeter, admiring all the fine work his teammates were doing, applauding their successes and encouraging them after their failures.

What he didn't do was get involved. He got his 22 points, and they were as quiet a 22 as you'll ever see. But he had just five assists and six rebounds to go with those points. Most damning, he took just eight free throws, as sure a sign as you can have that he wasn't taking it to the hoop.

Contrast that with what LeBron did Saturday in the first NBA playoff game of his life. King James did what the greatest players in the game are supposed to do: He had 32 points, 11 assists and 11 rebounds, becoming just the third person to get a triple-double in his first playoff game. The last person to do it was Magic Johnson, one of the greatest ever.

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Listen to what Jared Jeffries of the losing Washington Wizards had to say about LeBron's game: "Every bucket they got, every offensive rebound they got, it seemed like they were a result of him. He controlled the whole game."

LeBron's performance was scintillating, but hardly shocking. We may not have expected a triple-double, but we did expect James to be the best player on the court. And, if his team won, we expected him to be responsible.

So we went into Sunday, expecting Kobe to do LeBron one better. After all, all season long Bryant has been pouring points through the iron, averaging better than 35 a game.

This was the season in which Bryant bludgeoned every doubt about his talent. On a team that was short on top-shelf talent, he did it all. To watch him on any of his big nights was to know you were seeing one of the greatest players ever. There were nights when I was no longer certain, as I had been for so many years, that Michael Jordan had ever been any better.

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