By J.A. Adande
ESPN.com
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LOS ANGELES -- Ever since the Denver debacle a week earlier, Kobe Bryant has been shooting at an efficiency well above his career percentage. The Los Angeles Lakers are literally defending their home court, having allowed only one opponent to score more than 90 points in seven games at Staples Center. The Lakers have won the rebounding decision in all 10 games. Yet somehow when you add all that up it's not very impressive.

Even after beating the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday night, the Lakers (6-4) have only the seventh-best winning percentage in the Western Conference.

"We're doing OK," Bryant said. "There's a lot of bright spots there. Once we round into form a little bit better we'll be much improved."

Most of the excuses are valid ones. They lost two of the four games they played while Andrew Bynum was suspended. They're adapting to new offensive and defensive systems, with the learning curve slowed by minimal amounts of practice time while playing the NBA's busiest schedule in the first two weeks. They've been without their energy guy, Josh McRoberts, for the past four games.

They'll get better. But how much? That's the mystery of this team. One thing they won't be is more explosive. Coach Mike Brown called Sunday's frustrating victory, which the Lakers won in spite of their 27 turnovers, a "controlled, methodical game … a game we should excel at." A 90-82 final score is the way he prefers it, and it might be all the Lakers are capable of.

On Friday, after beating the Golden State Warriors in a similar manner, Bryant said: "You're going to have a lot of nights like that with us. We're not a transition team by any means. You're not going to see some of the fluidity that you see from other ballclubs. We're a very slow team, so you're not going to see fast-break points. A lot of games are going to be ugly."

Of late, the beauty is to be found in Bryant's stat line. After that unsightly 6-for-28 shooting night in Denver, he has made 51 of his past 103 shots (just a shade under 50 percent). His 26 points Sunday were actually a comedown from his three previous outings of 37, 30 and 39 points. He has 25 assists in that stretch as well.

And he's doing it with a torn ligament in his right wrist.

Assistant coach Chuck Person suggested that Kobe try shooting with his elbow elevated to relieve the pressure on his wrist. Kobe quickly adapted.

One thing I learned that might be the reason why Bryant has shot so much despite the damaged wrist: The trouble for him comes when the wrist is dangling by his side, not when it's being flexed. When it's at rest, the blood pools and the swelling increases. That would explain why, in the first week of the season, his hand looked more swollen before the Knicks game, after a practice day, than it did immediately after a game against the Jazz two days earlier. During one dead-ball Friday night, Bryant flicked several practice shots against the backboard, just to keep the wrist loose.

Bryant established from the outset of training camp that he wanted to show something to everyone who thinks he's over the hill, and he is demonstrating that he still has it, to a large degree. He can still get to his favorite spots (if not always to the rim) and can still get his shot off. His game against Golden State -- 39 points on 13-for-28 shooting with seven assists, while playing 41 minutes on the second night of a back-to-back -- goes down as one of the best performances of the early season.

The problem for the Lakers is that the Lakers have needed Kobe to be Kobe just to beat the likes of a Golden State team without the injured Stephen Curry and a Memphis squad without the injured Zach Randolph. At home.

They have yet to win a road game in three tries (at Sacramento, Denver and Portland). Their past three victories have come against teams with a combined record of 7-17.

Their sub-elite look has coincided with Bynum's most recent efforts, when he went from making Lakers fans abandon thoughts of Dwight Howard to once again checking salary matches in the Trade Machine. Bynum has shot 8-for-23 over the past two games. I kept track of the Lakers' scoring efficiency on possessions when Bynum touched the ball versus those in which he didn't on those two nights, and it has been roughly the same. So he hasn't been giving them the inside advantage on offense that he did in his first three games back from the suspension.

Bryant has made it clear that he'll still shoot as much as ever, and it's incumbent on anyone else who wants shots to show why they merit them.

Bynum and Pau Gasol were cited by Memphis coach Lionel Hollins as the biggest reasons his team shot 41 percent Sunday.

"When they have both bigs in the game, that's when they control the game," Hollins said.

Control, yes. There's never a sense that the Lakers are going to lose to these teams at home. Dominate? That's a different story. And that's why there isn't a sense that the Lakers are one of the league's elite teams.

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