HOUSTON - Here in the season's 90th game, the Lakers for the first time will not have their prime ticket — president Kobe Bryant and vice president Derek Fisher — together in their backcourt to provide invaluable leadership to a team whose highest-profile other players were longtime losers with the Grizzlies and Clippers.

According to NBA executive vice president Stu Jackson, Bryant came a few inches with that elbow from quite likely drawing the same one-game NBA suspension Fisher got for belting Luis Scola. As it was, Jackson said Bryant's elbow only struck Ron Artest in "the chest area" instead of in the above-the-shoulders suspension zone.

So after Bryant and Fisher united in a stunning show of force in Game 2, at least the Lakers have one of their captains for Game 3. And it's going to be one interesting evening for Bryant, who practically went nuts after the last time he tried this playoff thing without Fisher by his side — exiting the first round after Phil Jackson suddenly made rookie Jordan Farmar the starter over crumbling Smush Parker.

Bryant has a lot more talent to help him now than in 2007, but winning in the playoffs — especially winning on the road in the playoffs — takes something more latent than talent.

To clarify, Fisher had just eight points in each of the Lakers' two regular-season victories in Houston. So no biggie that he's missing, right? Well, Fisher also had just one turnover in 71 minutes of play in those two games, handling the ball a large portion of the time.

So Bryant is going to have to be a stabilizer for his team in Game 3 in addition to his usual job of firestarter. He also might well have to do much more in individual defense against Artest, whose bulk in the post against lean Trevor Ariza repeatedly compromised the Lakers' defense in Game 2.

Whereas there are only so many ways for your average ballplayer to focus, Bryant has proved he can juggle with the best of them — only the clown might be coming at him more at the other end, too. Given how well Bryant found his rhythm by rocking and firing quickly over Shane Battier last game, Houston should deem it time to try Artest more often as the primary defender on Bryant.

One sure thing is that Houston's fans will be all over Bryant, no matter how Battier and Artest guard him. But perhaps this is the game for him to crash the basket more than ever, create contact and silence the crowd when you consider how fast the referee whistles figure to come after all the mayhem that just happened.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson can use Luke Walton more to smooth out the offense with Fisher missing — Walton had five assists and no turnovers in 20 minutes in his first game back from an ankle injury — and Walton could also provide a bigger body to defend Artest, too. Yet Walton is not Fisher when it comes to leadership, and Bryant will certainly need to feed certain teammates' psyches to win Game 3.

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Bryant had a few words with Pau Gasol before Game 2 to pre-empt any chance that Gasol would again — to use Bryant's words — "get a little gun-shy" … and Gasol produced 22 points, 14 rebounds, four assists and four blocks in the Lakers' victory.

This time the major question is whether Farmar, Shannon Brown and Sasha Vujacic can stay focused enough to fill Fisher's minutes without mistakes. Mentally shaky Andrew Bynum also gets his latest chance to give us renewed reason to believe he could have a better NBA career than Yao Ming before it's all over.

Building his teammates up is something Bryant has done better this season than in any other — although always with his good friend Fisher's support. For the widespread awareness that he has never won the NBA Finals without Shaquille O'Neal, Bryant has also never reached the NBA Finals without Fisher. Bryant clearly shares something special with Fisher; he just won't share it tonight.

That makes tonight a chance for Bryant to put a truly unique stamp down in his glorious playoff collection. Win tonight, and it would be nothing short of a Kobe Bryant career highlight.

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