If you wanted a common thread to tie Jordan and Kobe together, that would be it right there.

The Lakers are in this surprising position because of a natural course of events. Lamar Odom had to slowly grow accustomed to his role. Kwame Brown had to shake off the stigma of his early woes in Washington. The rest of the Lakers had to learn to step up and chip in.

But most of all, Bryant had to resist the old urges to take over games single-handedly — like Mike used to in his early years — and listen to Jackson’s preaching about the triangle and how he needed to be a leader within it.

“The game is so much more fun playing this way,” Bryant explained. “It’s evolution. Phil and I both knew that there would be points during the regular season where I would have to shoulder the scoring load until they all understood the flow of the game. Phil came to me and said this is the kind of strategy we’re going to use in this series, and he was right. We’re ready, and we’re playing extremely well.”

It would be foolish for Kobe to ignore his considerable one-on-one skills completely. But it’s equally unwise to indulge them at the expense of his teammates. Fortunately, he has found the right balance at the right time.

The second-seeded Suns aren’t exactly being smoked in this first-round series against the No. 7 Lakers. Each of these games has been a survival test. But they have to be a little unnerved that the team they took the first three of four regular-season meetings from this season — and lost the fourth mainly because Nash sat out — is suddenly a completely different force of nature.

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“I’ve never seen anything in my life like that playing basketball, watching or being a part of,” said Suns guard Eddie House about the topsy-turvy Game 4 Sunday. “I don’t know what else to say.”

When Bryant hit the game-winner, the Staples Center crowd erupted in what might be described as unprecedented jubilation. True, this is a franchise that has lots of championship banners on the wall, so its fans are used to whooping it up. The Lakers won their last of three straight crowns only four years ago.

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But after last season, which was rife with abuse, ridicule, misery, dissension, turmoil and losing, this represents the dawn of a new day, both in the team’s ascent into contention and in Kobe’s quest to be like Mike.

“The difference is in the past people expected us to win these games,” Bryant said. “So hitting that (game-winning) shot was almost like a relief. Nobody expects us to win these games, or to be in the playoffs. We’re a young team, and to do this together really makes it special.”