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LOS ANGELES -- Andrew Bynum sat in front of his locker with a scowl instead of a smile.
He was brief with his answers, short with his time and limited with his patience.
As Bynum took a page out of Kobe Bryant’s playbook of succinct, pithy answers during the playoffs, several reporters had to double-check the final box score in their hands and make sure there wasn’t a misprint.

The Los Angeles Lakers had just beaten the Denver Nuggets, 104-100, to take a 2-0 series lead in their first round matchup and Bynum finished with 27 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. Was there something missing?

“I left a lot on the court today,” Bynum said. “I worked way too hard before the game to let that happen. I could have had a perfect game.”

Bynum couldn’t define his perfect game, but it was certainly more than the stat line he produced Tuesday night. He wanted to get at least another rebound and at least a few more blocked shots. After getting a triple-double in Game 1, Bynum isn’t satisfied with anything less than a double-double now.

“I just left stats out there. That’s about it,” Bynum said. “I left a double-double out there, I left some block shots out there, I left points out there. I left a lot of things out there tonight.”

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The opening weekend of the 2012 NBA playoffs featured two games with dramatic fourth quarter results that got the rest of league's attention.

On Saturday, Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose tore the ACL in his left knee when he was still on the court in the fourth quarter even though the Bulls led the Philadelphia 76ers by 12 with just 1:22 remaining.

On Sunday, the Los Angeles Clippers trailed by as many as 27 points in the second half and came back to beat the Memphis Grizzlies with a furious rally in the fourth quarter.

Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau, the NBA's reigning Coach of the Year, was left to defend his decision to keep Rose and the rest of his starters in the game. Just a day later, Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro continued to play his best players late in the game even though his team entered the fourth quarter down by 21 points.

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Before the playoff brackets were set in stone, I hoped very hard the Lakers would open against the Dallas Mavericks rather than the Denver Nuggets. The defending champs haven't consistently looked the part all season, as evidenced by four losses to the Lakers in as many games. L.A. matches up well against Dallas. And most importantly, the Lakers tend to play well against teams they dislike, and there's no love lost for the squad that unceremoniously ended the three-peat quest. In the meantime, the Nuggets thrive in transition and pick-and-roll, two approaches that causes fits for the Lakers. They lack a true "star," but boast enviable depth. Ty Lawson and Andre Miller are point guards capable of creating havoc in very different ways. Arron Afflalo has a track record of quality D against Kobe Bryant. And Denver's small ball prowess could force some uncomfortable mismatches.

I still expect the Lakers to win. But I'm also expecting a very challenging series, especially with Metta World Peace suspended and Matt Barnes potentially limited by a sprained ankle.

For more perspective on the Nuggets, we called upon Jeremy Wagner of the True Hoop Network's Roundball Mining Company. Below are his responses to five questions.

Land O' Lakers: What are Denver's biggest strengths against the Lakers and what are their weaknesses?

Jeremy Wagner: Denver’s biggest strength is the ability to score in the paint, whether on the break, or in the half court via penetration by Lawson, Miller, Afflalo and Danilo Gallinari. With the Lakers’ ability to clog the paint on defense, that strength is somewhat mitigated, so Denver must take advantage of their speed to get easy baskets in transition.

The Nuggets’ biggest weakness is a dependence on small lineups. Denver has the size to match up with the Lakers front line, but will George Karl reduce the minutes of players like Kenneth Faried and Al Harrington for Timofey Mozgov and JaVale McGee? I think he should, but I doubt he agrees.

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This time of year, and especially in this kind of a season, NBA players have been sitting out and resting up whenever and for whatever reasons they feel like.

With the way their bodies have been taxed by the condensed season, guys aren't even trying to be tough about it.

But the one player who should not sit out the season's final game is Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant.

Bryant needs 38 points in the Lakers regular-season finale against the Sacramento Kings on Thursday to pass up Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant for the NBA scoring title and he should absolutely go for it.

ESPNLosAngeles.com's Dave McMenamin reported Wednesday night that the Lakers, having locked up the third-seed in the Western Conference playoffs, are considering resting all of their starters except Bryant in Thursday's game.

The final call will be up to Bryant, and while he has said capturing his third career scoring title was "not very important," that doesn't mean he should sit out the regular-season finale for appearances' sake.

If he plays there are going to be people who criticize him for chasing an individual title and say it proves he's being disingenuous when he says he only cares about chasing a sixth NBA title.

Here's guessing those are the same people who had an issue with the Mets Jose Reyes coming out after getting a hit in his final at-bat last season to give himself the best chance of winning the National League batting title last season.

But here's also guessing all of those people already don't have a favorable opinion of Bryant.

The man has been in the league 16 seasons already. Everybody already has an opinion of him and there's nothing he can do or not do to change it except to win titles and embellish his resume for comparison against the game's all-time greats.

That's beside the point, though. Bryant should play because players should play if they want to. Because a sold out arena in Sacramento might be watching its last NBA game. And yes, because it does mean something if he wins a scoring title at age 33.

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Here's the rest of the sweeping interview with Lakers executive vice president Jim Buss: (See Part 1 here)

Q: Let’s talk about you. Do you feel like you’re at a point in your career with the Lakers that you’re beginning to, for lack of a better term, spread your wings a little bit and kind of come into your own with responsibilities and kind of your voice?

“Am I prepared, is that what you’re asking?”

Q: No, not if you’re prepared. Is this your moment? Do you feel like you have more responsibility, more say?

“It’s like watching your kid grow up. Somebody that you haven’t seen in a year comes in and all of the sudden says, ‘Holy crimminy! Look how tall they’ve gotten!’ I do this every day, so I don’t think it’s one day I walked out and started doing this [Buss flaps his arms] kind of thing. I think it’s so gradual that I really haven’t seen the growth that I have. Now, if I look back five years, yes, there’s a lot of responsibility and a lot more say and a lot more decision making, but it wasn’t overnight. It’s been a long process. It’s a fun process, but it’s been a long process and a lot of teachers. Hall of Famers kind of thing. So, this year I think it’s coming to fruition because my dad has mentioned that I’m responsible now for the decisions. But really, I haven’t felt it. It seems like I do this all the time.”

Q: You mention your dad. What’s Dr. Buss’ role with the franchise?

“The boss. Same as it’s ever been. Wait, there’s a song like that ...”

Q: Same as it ever was ...


“Same as it ever was, yeah, that’s it. Same as it ever was. If there’s a decision to be made that’s important to the franchise -- a player movement -- he’s the final hammer. I’ll have a recommendation, Mitch might have a different recommendation and we’ll just let him decide. Usually Mitch and I are on board together. We’ll hack it out first and then we’ll go with a recommendation kind of thing, ‘This is what we feel we should do.’ And there have been times he’s stopped them. There are times where he says, ‘No, I don’t want that.’ So, I mean, it’s his decision. He’s the final guy.”

Q: It seems like yours and Mitch’s relationship is pretty strong. Would you say most of the time all three of you guys are in harmony? Is there healthy disagreements?

“Oh, it’s healthy. We couldn’t survive if we were yes men to each other or to my dad. The three of us will have an opinion, we’ll argue our opinion and then eventually, it gets hashed out to where we’re all on board or one guy isn’t (and) two are and it doesn’t really matter which two or which one. Except for my dad. If it’s two against him, then we’ll probably lose that battle.”

Q: But, someday the buck will stop with you. That’s where it’s headed. You mentioned how gradual it is, but do you feel any pressure to that. That you’ll be responsible for that mantle at some point?

“No.”

Q: Do you look forward to it? Are you excited about it?

“No, because then that means my dad is not involved. So, no, I don’t look forward to it. Am I worried about it? No. Not at all.”

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It was team photo day at the Los Angeles Lakers' practice facility this week. Sitting smack dab in the middle of the front row of smiling participants was Jim Buss, wearing a black baseball-style Lakers cap with a line of players wearing yellow jerseys to either side of him.

Buss, the Lakers’ executive vice president of player personnel, was occupying the spot his father, Lakers owner Jerry Buss, usually takes when it’s time for the team to annually say, “Cheese.” It was a fitting scene, illustrating just how much the younger Buss has been thrust into the forefront of the Lakers’ franchise decisions as his father has watched him assume greater control over the family business.

Jerry Buss is still “the boss,” as Jim Buss says, and his absence from the team photo wasn’t an orchestrated move to pass the baton to his son or anything -- he was simply feeling under the weather the day of the photo shoot, according to a Lakers staffer -- but there will come a time when the Lakers are truly Jim Buss’ team.

Following the photo session, the normally reticent Jim Buss sat down with ESPNLosAngeles.com for a wide-ranging interview. As Buss sipped on a black coffee with three Sweet 'N Lows and scratched his beard that he decided to keep after growing out his facial hair for the first time in his life during the NBA’s 161-day lockout, the conversation spanned his increased role with the Lakers, the team’s championship aspirations, how the new collective bargaining agreement and revenue sharing arrangement will affect business, his relationship with Phil Jackson, and much more. (See Part 2 here.)

Q: What are your thoughts on this season?

“Well, I think it’s coming along just as we anticipated with the changing of the guard of coaches [and] new players. I felt that the second half of the season would be better than the first half. As far as up and down, every season has its ups and downs. To me, this is a normal up and down, so it’s OK. But I like how we’re hitting our stride going into the playoffs, so I’m happy.”

Q: Start with Andrew Bynum. He could be the best player on this team in the second half of the season, all due respect to Kobe.

“I’m not a guy that judges players in different positions against different players. It doesn’t make sense to me to compare a center to a guard. It doesn’t make sense at all. So, to say Andrew Bynum was the best player in the second half, I wouldn’t be comparing him to anybody. You got Pau Gasol, Metta World Peace, Ramon Sessions, Kobe [Bryant]. ... I think they all are the best player on the team in their position.”

Q: You would agree, though, that his performance on the court in terms of production has been the best it’s ever been.

“Yes, of course. If you wanted me to compare him to himself, he’s having his best year.”

Q: Has his attitude or any of his actions on and off the court taken away from some of that production?

“I don’t think so. I like what Phil Jackson said the other day [to the Los Angeles Times]. I thought that was the best way to look at it. The kid is coming into his own and there’s going to be some growing pains and just let him grow. So, I’m good with it.”

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Lakers coach Mike Brown doesn't have a DeLorean to take him back to Wednesday evening so he can save Pau Gasol from joining Timofey Mozgov and Kendrick Perkins as Blake Griffin's most battered dunk victims, but that doesn't mean he can't try to add a postscript to the plays by getting the league to admit the dunks should have been disallowed.

Brown told reporters at shootaround Friday in preparation for L.A.'s game against the Houston Rockets that the Lakers have reached out to the league seeking clarification as to why both of Griffin's dunks on Gasol -- a putback in the first quarter and the poster-worthy jam in the third -- weren't called as fouls against Griffin.

"I’m waiting to see an interpretation on the call because it’s a heck of a play [but] I thought if you led with your forearm, I thought that’s an offensive foul," Brown said. "But maybe I don’t know the rules that well. It will be interesting to make sure that I have an explanation or understanding of what the rules are."

Brown said Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak has reached out to the league office on behalf of the team, searching for answers.

Gasol took umbrage with Griffin's Mozgov-like dunk after the game Wednesday.

"You don't really see what happened," Gasol said. "It was quick, a hit-and-run kind of thing, right? The ball went in, I was on my ass, I woke up, I stood up and told the referee I had a f---ing forearm on my face, on my throat, and that's something that needs to be looked at."

Brown said Griffin's first-quarter dunk on Gasol also should have been an infraction.

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Not long after the Lakers beat the Portland Trail Blazers 103-96 on Friday, assisting on 33 of their 40 baskets and topping the century mark for the third straight game, head coach Mike Brown made a statement in jest that would have seemed ridiculous just weeks ago.

"Maybe now everybody might think I’m an offensive coach, I don’t know," Brown said with a wide smile, poking fun at his reputation for having a defense-oriented mind.

It was a break-through performance for the Lakers, who had spent most of the season looking more "Slowtime" than "Showtime." With the freshly acquired Ramon Sessions making his first start at point guard (and putting up 20 points and 11 assists in the process), the L.A. offense that Brown envisioned and pitched to general manager Mitch Kupchak, executive vice president Jim Buss and owner Dr. Jerry Buss to get the job was finally coming into fruition.

With Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum healthy and confident now that the trade deadline was behind them and they were still wearing purple and gold, Brown had his twin towers in place to operate the sets he learned from his days coaching Tim Duncan and David Robinson in San Antonio. With Sessions, he finally had a true pick-and-roll point guard to engage Brown's strong corner offense and put pressure on the defense from the second L.A. crossed halfcourt. With Kobe Bryant free to play off the ball more now that Sessions was in the fold, he had the game's greatest scorer freed up from ball-handling duties and available to roam to open spaces and catch the ball with a half step of separation between him and the opposing defenders.

It was a tipping-point type of performance. All five Lakers starters scored in double digits. The team assisted on 82.5 percent of its buckets, well above its season average of 59.8 percent. It was the eighth time the Lakers scored 100 points or more in the month of March after only doing so six times in all of December, January and February.

"Offensively we’re executing extremely well," said Bryant who went just 5-for-17 from the field but didn't seem to bog down the Lakers' flow with his misses. "We’re running things with more continuity to them."

Brown said the improvement came down to three things: ball movement, proper spacing and attacking the clock. With the speedy Sessions, L.A. was able to start its offense within the first four or five seconds of the shot clock, giving the team 20 seconds or so to explore second, third and even fourth options on any given offensive possession, thus keeping the defense off balance.

"For us, in the past, we were a post-up team so you basically had to address Pau and Andrew’s post-ups and then Kobe’s post-ups and his isos," Brown explained after Saturday's practice. "So, the game plan against us was easy and we weren’t really capable of getting a ton of easy baskets because we didn’t have the quickness and the ability that Ramon brings to the table. Now, there’s a lot of things that they got to address before or just as much as you talk about Andrew’s post-ups, you got to talk about Ramon Sessions’ middle pick-and-roll, you got to talk about Sessions’ side pick-and-roll, you got to talk about Sessions in transition, you got to talk about Sessions’ and Kobe’s 1-2 pick-and-roll or 2-1 pick-and-roll. Oh, you got to talk about Kobe’s isos. Oh no, no, don’t forget about Pau’s ability to pick-and-pop or Pau’s ability to post."

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EL SEGUNDO -- With just 18 games remaining in the regular season, the 30-18 Lakers have built a three-game lead over the Los Angeles Clippers for the No. 3 seeding in the West and sit only 2 1/2 games behind San Antonio for the No. 2 spot.

With the playoffs beginning in just about a month, talk of postseason seeding is picking up and the Lakers find themselves in the unique situation of a schedule that could either help them catch the Spurs quickly or, in a sense, double the separation between the two teams. From April 11-20, three of the six games the Lakers will play are against San Antonio, with two of the three coming on the road.

L.A. has yet to play the Spurs this season, but Lakers coach Mike Brown says he believes it's possible to track down his mentor, Gregg Popovich, and the boys in black and silver.

"It could happen," Brown said after the Lakers' film session and light practice Saturday.

As long as the Lakers keep the Clippers and Phoenix Suns at bay and win the Pacific Division, the worst they'll be seeded is No. 3. Brown isn't putting any pressure on the San Antonio pursuit.

"I never really put any goals like that on our team in terms of how many games we need to win or where we need to finish," Brown said. "Obviously it would be great to finish first if that happens, but I don’t think that was of the utmost importance for us because I felt the season was going to be wacky and I just wanted to be at our best at the end, wherever that was [in terms of seeding]. If we were at our best at the end, I really don’t care if we play at home or on somebody’s court, we’ll go get it done."

Still, the three games in 10 days against the Spurs should provide a mini playoff feel for both the Lakers players and coaching staff as the two teams make adjustments to each other from game to game.

"[It will be] a test, meaning that they’re a good basketball team and it will be fun to compete against them and they give you a feel based on how they defend and based on how they play offense of some things that you need to adjust to," Brown said. "But, in terms of us winning three games or them winning all three games, to me, that doesn’t mean much."

As far as that cushion in the standings the Lakers have been able to build by winning seven of their last nine games, it doesn't do much for Brown.

"There’s still a ways to go," Brown said. "I think there’s starting to be some separation, but I think in the loss column it’s like two or three games. I think it’s still within shouting distance for everybody. I think when you start talking 6-7 games, maybe that’s a little bit different, but I still consider us all close."

Dave McMenamin covers the Lakers for ESPNLosAngeles.com. Follow him on Twitter.

The Lakers have won seven out of nine games heading into Sunday's seminal showdown with the Miami Heat. It's not quite the kind of streak that the Heat are on, winners of nine out of 10 with all of the wins coming by a margin of 10 points or more, but the Lakers will take it.

The Lakers' defense has been solid all season long, keeping them in just about every ballgame they've played, but the offense had been lacking. Along with the Lakers' recent upswing in wins has been an improvement on offense. They have topped 100 points in six out of their last 16 games after only doing it one time in their first 20 games to start the season.

The offensive turnaround has coincided with a less-is-more approach from Lakers coach Mike Brown. Known for being detail-oriented and a taskmaster, Brown has smartly begun to loosen his control of the offense and not call as many plays possession by possession, instead trusting his players to make reads and decisions on their own.

"For me, just in general, my confidence level has gone up with this team," Brown said. "Maybe 3-4 weeks ago, I started letting go of the reins a little bit because I started to feel our guys were getting it. I started to sit back and allowed them to do more things out on the floor because I felt they understood what we needed or what we were trying to accomplish. ... I gave them more ownership."

Brown wasn't coaching just any group of players. The core of the Lakers' roster had been to three NBA Finals and won two championships. They all have accelerated basketball IQs. When given the chance to think for themselves, they are capable of making the correct decisions.

"I don’t want to single that out and say because coach is letting go more, we’re doing better and it’s that simple," said Lakers co-captain Derek Fisher who has benefited individually offensively as the team has improved. Fisher's season averages are just 5.6 points on 38.6 percent shooting from the field and 29.1 percent on 3-pointers, but in his last five games he's averaging 8.2 points on 51.6 percent from the field and hitting 40 percent from 3.

"I think there are a number of reasons why we’re doing some things better on the offensive end and so I think it’s a combination of him trusting us and us trusting him in terms of not just whether he’s calling the plays or not, but the plays we’re running, the things we’re looking for, putting the right guys in the right position to be successful and I think most importantly, not just him letting go, but us as players saying, ‘Regardless of what he’s doing in terms of trying to orchestrate, the five guys that are on the floor are the ones that make the difference.’ So, as five players on the floor, it’s up to us to figure out how to be successful within whatever the coach is trying to do."

For better or for worse, Kobe Bryant put the Lakers' offensive thrust on his back to begin the season and figured he would carry the load while the team got up to speed. He ran his scoring up to 28.8 points per game, a remarkable accomplishment to lead the league in scoring as a 16-year veteran and he hasn't had to sacrifice much of his individual numbers as the rest of the team has started to figure things out better. Bryant has four games of 30 points or more in the Lakers' current stretch of winning seven out of nine games.

"I think we’re just reading each other," Bryant said. "Just playing off each other a little bit better."

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When the Lakers last played the Kings back on Dec. 26 in just L.A.'s second game of the season, Sacramento started the Lakers' season-long road woes with a 100-91 win. The game? Not that memorable aside from the four-time All-Star Pau Gasol getting tangled up with the second-year player DeMarcus Cousins, incensing the Kings' center enough to cause him to ball his hand into a fist and cock back his arm as if he was going to punch Gasol.

Fortunately, the punch went unrealized as Cousins calmed down and Cousins (12 points and 11 rebounds) ended up finishing the game with comparable numbers to Gasol (15 points and nine rebounds) in eight fewer minutes of playing time.

The question is, will Cousins' tremendous talent go unrealized too?

In Cousins' short amount of time in the league so far, he's already been removed from the team plane following a fight with teammate Donte Greene and demanded a trade, a poorly handled situation which ultimately cost Kings coach Paul Westphal his job.

Despite the controversy, he's performed. Cousins is averaging 16.6 points, 11.5 rebounds and 1.2 rebounds this season, up from his rookie year numbers of 14.1 points, 8.6 rebounds and 0.8 blocks. During All-Star weekend, TNT analyst Charles Barkley even said that Cousins has the ability to be the best big man in the game in the future if he stays on the right track.

The Lakers play the Kings again Friday, this time at Staples Center and Gasol isn't holding a grudge against Cousins for their near skirmish the first time they played this season.

"You want all guys to succeed," Gasol said. "You want all talented guys to reach their potential, because I think they’re given an opportunity in life, a special opportunity, and they should value it and take advantage of it. Absolutely, I want any kid in the league who comes up to do well and have a successful career."

Lakers coach Mike Brown also believes in Cousins.

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It was one thing for Lakers second-round draft pick Andrew Goudelock to draw comparisons to Nick Van Exel, a high-scoring yet low-to-the-ground guard (Van Exel is 6-1, Goudelock is listed generously at 6-3) second-round steal the Lakers acquired with the No. 37 pick back in 1993.

It was another thing entirely for Kobe Bryant, a once-in-a-generation talent, to compare Goudelock to himself.

"He’s not afraid to shoot," Bryant said Tuesday after Goudelock chipped in 12 points in the Lakers' rout of the Bobcats. "He’s got a little nickname now. We call him, ‘Mini Mamba.’"

It's no coincidence that Goudelock, the No. 46 pick out of the College of Charleston, has averaged 11.5 points on 50 percent shooting from the field and 57.1 percent shooting on 3-pointers (8-for-14) in 20.8 minutes in the last four games and the Lakers have gone 3-1.

After disappearing from the lineup for about a month when he opened up the season as Bryant's primary backup at shooting guard and re-emerged in Lakers coach Mike Brown's rotation as Derek Fisher's primary backup at point guard because Steve Blake went out with a rib injury, Goudelock has punched some life into the Lakers' stagnant offense.

"To have a guy that can just go play pick-and-roll and go create a shot for yourself or your teammate, that’s pretty neat to have," said Brown after Goudelock and the second unit's 48 points against Charlotte helped the Lakers top the 100-point mark in consecutive games for the first time all season. "You see other teams have them and we don’t have a ton of those guys."

While Brown sees other teams and counts their playmakers in relation to his roster, Goudelock simply sees red. After finishing fourth in the NCAA scoring race as a senior, averaging 23.7 points per game, Goudelock waited and waited on draft night as nearly two teams passed on him for every point he averaged last year.

"You try not to think about those types of things but that means 45 teams passed up on me," Goudelock said.

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Since signing with the Lakers he’s changed his jersey number his name, but Metta World Peace hasn’t been able to change the fact that he’s declining as a player.

After an impressive performance in the Lakers’ 96-91 win over the Clippers on Wednesday, World Peace at least wanted to change the narrative of why his play has been slipping.

“The defense, I got to bring it back,” World Peace said after practice Thursday, a day after putting up three points, seven assists, five rebounds, two steals and a block while playing a season-high 38 minutes. “I got bored with defense because it was so easy for me to stop people over the years. I got real bored with it. When you’re playing against guys and you’re stopping guys every single time, what else are you going to do [but get bored]? It caught up to me, but this year I’m doing better. This year I’m almost back to where I want to be.”

As wild as his premise might sound (“bored” could explain why he changed his name from Ron Artest, however), Kobe Bryant actually agreed with World Peace’s logic.

“I can relate to that,” Bryant said. “That’s happened to me before as well. That’s human nature sometimes. You have to have [and] you have to find challenges that kind of get you going and keep your energy.

“It’s about finding your edge. You have to find your edge. It’s not something that’s farfetched. He was a great defensive player. Things sometimes become too easy. Offensively, things for me get really, really easy sometimes and the game just feels boring. But you have to find that edge, you have to find something that’s going to push you.”

What pushed World Peace against the Clippers was the chance to push tough guys Reggie Evans and Blake Griffin around a little bit.

“Once the guys [on the Clippers] started talking to me, I had to come out of my shell a little bit,” World Peace told 710 ESPN’s “Mason & Ireland Show” on Thursday. “So, they kind of woke me up.”

The wake-up call was appreciated by World Peace’s teammates.

“I think [Wednesday] night it was definitely a positive,” said Pau Gasol. “I don’t think you might need that necessarily every night, but his aggression and aggressiveness and level of energy last night really made an impact and that’s something that we look forward to from Ron. Because, he might not be having a great shooting night, but if he has a couple steals, gets into a couple guys’ faces, puts his body on people, knocks somebody around a little bit here and there, plays physical … He’s as physical as it gets at the small forward position. You don’t get a much stronger guy than him, so you got to use his body to be a factor.”

World Peace’s body is finally back in top form after coming into training camp admittedly out of shape. Coach Mike Brown called him “heavy” and reduced World Peace’s minutes from 29.4 per game as the starting small forward last season to 20.9 this year in a reserve role. Brown even sat World Peace out the entire game against Cleveland less than two weeks ago, surprising considering World Peace played in all 82 of the Lakers’ games a year ago.

“I just think I’m getting in shape,” World Peace told 710 ESPN. “I planned on playing really hard this season, but I couldn’t do that early on because I was out of shape and then when I got in shape, I wasn’t getting no minutes so I wasn’t able to show the things that I was able to do.”

He insists that his career low averages of 5.3 points, 2.6 rebounds, 0.7 assists and 0.2 blocks on just 33.9 percent shooting has more to do with his minutes being cut and his body rounding into shape than it does with his not being fully engaged.

“It really hasn’t changed,” World Peace said. “I’ve just been out on the floor. On the bench, I was really enthusiastic on the bench. Bench players don’t get credit for clapping. I had a lot of energy on the bench.”

After the Clippers game, Bryant said he wants to see more of the old, aggressive Ron Artest and less of the passive World Peace.

“Ron was his feisty self on the perimeter,” Bryant said Thursday. “He just needs to be who he is. We brought him in there for him being himself, so he just has to be himself.”

World Peace wants people to know the definition of who he is doesn’t include any malicious intent.

“On the court, I’m definitely not a mean person. I’m still the same person. I play extremely hard,” he told 710 ESPN. “You won’t be seeing that much. I can play basketball with just as much energy without talking smack and still being energized and having fun with the fans.”

Gasol put it thusly: “He’s World Peace now. He can’t be too aggressive or too violent out there. He’s preaching peace.”

Still, whatever player wore No. 15 for the Lakers last night-- the docile Metta World Peace, the rambunctious Ron Artest, or some combination of the two -- was sprung to life by the Clippers. And Clippers-Lakers games are sure to be just as lively for every player involved moving forward.

“I love it,” World Peace said. “It’s a L.A. rival. It’s here. I’m happy the Clippers are doing well. I’m happy we got a chance to [be like] New York that has the subway series with the Yankees and the Mets. I’m happy to be a part of this Clippers and Lakers rivalry. I hope we meet each other in the playoffs. That would be great for the city.”

Dave McMenamin covers the Lakers for ESPNLosAngeles.com. Follow him on Twitter.

As if going on the road to play the second night of a back to back isn't taxing enough, the Lakers will be without three of their key reserves for the second consecutive game.

Backup big men Josh McRoberts (sprained big toe on his left foot) and Troy Murphy (gastroenteritis) are out of commission and backup shooting guard Jason Kapono was given permission by head coach Mike Brown to stay with his wife, Ashley, back in L.A. and be with his newborn twin daughters, Isla and Campbell.

"I was the guy that made the decision to tell him to stay back with his family and I think it’s important when those things [come up]," said Brown, who has two sons of his own. "Those are like once, twice, 3-4 times maybe, depending on how many you want (laughing) in a lifetime experience. I think it’s very important to show support, especially to your wife because we’re gone a lot. I know my wife plays mother and father a lot of times when I’m on the road. So, to me, it’s only human to allow that to happen. I’m OK with it."

Brown said he abandoned scouting trips to be with his wife, Carolyn, when she gave birth to his sons, Elijah and Cameron.

With his substitutes out, Brown was left to focus on getting the most out of his Lakers' family.

Luke Walton went from playing 10 total minutes in three appearances this season to playing 26 minutes at backup power forward against Phoenix, racking up six points, eight rebounds and three assists.

When asked if Brown would go with Walton again, he said, "We'll see."

He could also give more time to Metta World Peace at power forward, who he complimented for grabbing seven rebounds in just 20 minutes against the Suns. Or Brown could experiment with Devin Ebanks at the 4 position. Ebanks has fallen out of the rotation since Matt Barnes won the starting small forward role from him.

Rookie Andrew Goudelock will assume Kapono's minutes as Kobe Bryant's backup at 2-guard. Goudelock had zero points and two turnovers in nine minutes against Phoenix.

The Lakers have another back-to-back on the horizon this week when they host Cleveland on Friday then play a "road" game against the Clippers on Saturday.

Brown expects to have Kapono back by then, but is not sure about Murphy's and McRoberts' statuses for those games.

"We could [have them in the lineup]," Brown said. "I don’t want to say yes because nothing is guaranteed with the other two guys."

Dave McMenamin covers the Lakers for ESPNLosAngeles.com. Follow him on Twitter.

The Lakers bench shot just 5-for-24 for 14 total points in Thursday's loss to the Blazers and they didn't receive a lift from their lob-catching lefty on Friday.

Forward Josh McRoberts missed his third consecutive game because of a sprained big toe on his left foot.

McRoberts is averaging 5.7 points and 5.7 rebounds in 23.3 minutes per game on the season.

"Josh was playing good for us but he can’t play because he’s injured so we just got to go to the next guy," Lakers coach Mike Brown said before the Lakers played the Golden State Warriors.

The "next guy" is Troy Murphy, who averaged 2.5 points and 3.0 rebounds in 24 minutes in the first two games that McRoberts missed.

Brown said McRoberts was "day to day" on Thursday, but the Lakers listed the 6-10, 240-pound big man as "doubtful" on Friday.

Brown admitted to exercising caution when it comes to McRoberts so that the injury doesn't linger with the five-year veteran as the season continues.

"I wouldn’t want anything to nag at him the whole year," Brown said.

Dave McMenamin covers the Lakers for ESPNLosAngeles.com. Follow him on Twitter.