BRYANT GIVES L.A. A SCARE LAKERS HOLD ON AFTER BRYANT LEAVES GAME WITH SPRAINED ANKLE LAKERS 101, INDIANA 87.

Byline: ROSS SILER Staff Writer

There was a sprained ankle somewhere underneath the suit that Kobe Bryant wore as he limped from one side of the Lakers' empty locker room to the other, long after Monday night's game against the Indiana Pacers had finished.

Not that Bryant's attire offered any clues. A red diamond rested in his ear. His tie was pulled tight against his collar. And Bryant was remarkably upbeat about an injury that forced him out of the Lakers' 101-87 victory in the third quarter.

``It should be a lot worse the way I came down on it,'' Bryant said.

``I'm happy I feel the way I feel right now. It should be a lot worse.''

Bryant suffered the injury a little more than two minutes into the second half and was left clutching his ankle at the far end of the court. He had to be helped off the floor by trainer Gary Vitti and forward Ronny Turiaf, though he returned to the bench minutes later.

The Lakers listed Bryant as day to day and said it was a moderate sprain. X-rays were negative and Bryant's availability for Wednesday's game against New Orleans was uncertain.

Yet it was a frightening reminder of the severe sprain of the same ankle that cost Bryant 14 games in the 2004-05 season.

Bryant himself said he was ``in for a painful long night'' with the ankle taped and swelling.

Left to finish the game without Bryant, the Lakers let the Pacers close to 90-83 with three minutes left as Jermaine O'Neal hit threeconsecutive shots over Lakers center Kwame Brown.

The Lakers went more than fiveminutes without scoring in the fourth quarter, nearly blowing a 20-point lead in the process, but found their go-to player in Brown down the stretch.

Brown beat O'Neal for a layup and dunk and fouled him out by drawing a charge with 1:55 left. He finished with a season-high 17 points, making 8 of 12 shots, and grabbing fourrebounds in only 24 minutes.

``His quickness at 270, 275 (pounds), there's force behind it,'' forward Lamar Odom said of Brown. ``I know we're definitely going to see more of that.''

Bryant was injured with 9:49 left in the third quarter after he tracked down a rebound and attacked the basket. He tried to throw in a shot across his body and landed on Jeff Foster's foot.

He rolled his right ankle and forced Lakers coach Phil Jackson to call a timeout when he stayed down. Bryant left with the Lakers leading by 19points, having scored 21 points in the 21 minutes he played.

The Staples Center crowd broke into an ``MVP'' chant as Bryant was helped off the court, but it was unmistakably subdued.

Bryant returned to the bench for the final seven-plus minutes of the third quarter. He said he could have played if necessary; Jackson said he asked Bryant about the possibility in the fourth quarter.

``He said, `I don't know what I can do out there, I don't know if I can hold up,''' Jackson said. ``I said, `No problem.'''

The Lakers had an 85-75 lead with 9:21 left at the time. Bryant said he told Jackson, ``If you need me, I'll go back in.''

``He knows what that means,'' Bryant added. ``Normally, I'll just run right up to the scorer's table if I'm ready to go. I'd have to go out there and kind of limp and do that sort of thing. If I needed to go out there to be a threat and knock down a couple jumpers, I could have done it.''

The comparisons, meanwhile, are there for Brown every time he sets foot on the court with O'Neal, who made the same jump from high school to the NBA. O'Neal was the youngest player in NBA history before Andrew Bynum took the distinction.

Matched up against O'Neal, Brown had nine points and two rebounds as the Lakers built a 16-point lead in the first quarter Monday. He was shaky at the foul line and missed a couple of point-blank baskets, but was a force all the same.

Brown threw down twodunks and flipped in a hook shot over O'Neal. He also sent O'Neal to the bench with his second foul with 1:10 left in the quarter by taking a charge on defense. Brown credited a scouting report that told him O'Neal liked to go left.

``He certainly was the pivotal player for our game,'' Jackson said of Brown. ``The inside game was really what won the night for us.''

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The Lakers' Kobe Bryant blocks a shot by the Pacers' Stephen Jackson on Monday.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer