BRYANT STARTS, LAKERS STOP; GUARD'S TURNOVERS KEY AS STREAK ENDS : SACRAMENTO 103, LAKERS 91.

Byline: Howard Beck Staff Writer

Kobe Bryant finally started. The Lakers' winning streak ended. Go try to make sense of it.

Oddly enough, those events happened concurrently Wednesday night, but the return of the star guard and the loss that followed was more coincidence than correlation. This fast-breaking whirlwind known as the Sacramento Kings earned most of the credit for L.A.'s 103-91 loss, the Lakers' first defeat in 17 days.

Sometimes the Kings ran, as they do with more flair than anyone in the league. But the fast break didn't kill the Lakers. The Kings' faster bursts from Point A to Point B, everywhere on the floor, did.

It showed up in the rebounding column, where Sacramento had a 45-37 edge, and in the steals column, where the Kings won 11-4. The other second-effort scraps for loose balls were harder to quantify.

``I learned a couple of things about the intensity level we carried out there,'' coach Phil Jackson said. ``I found it interesting that they beat us on whatever they call that `hustle board' out there quite badly during the course of the game. That really said something about our reaction to go to the ball. We didn't react well to the ball early, they got offensive rebounds, putbacks, a 3-point shot out of three successive offensive rebounds by Nick Anderson.''

That kind of effort carried the Kings to a seven-point lead by halftime, and the Lakers vainly played catch-up all night. Even 27 points each from Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal couldn't do it.

The Kings more than countered with 20 points from Chris Webber and 19 from Jason Williams, and kept the momentum going with big bursts off the bench from Peja Stojakovic (19 points) and Lawrence Funderburke (10 points).

For Bryant, making his first start of the season after four relief appearances, it was a shaky return. He overcame early shooting struggles to finish 11 of 19, and had six rebounds and five assists, but his six glaring turnovers stifled Laker rallies.

Bryant wasn't alone - O'Neal and Ron Harper added five turnovers apiece - but he knew how costly his mistakes were.

``Pain in the butt,'' Bryant said, quietly assessing his night. ``I hate it. I hate it, man. I hate it. I hate it.

``You want to try so bad to make up for it, try to cancel that, get that out of your game as much as you can. You just have to study it and see why that happens in certain situations, read what's going on, because everything is going to happen for a reason out there. You just pick it apart.''

Bryant once lost the ball spinning into traffic in the lane, once stumbling into a baseline move and once just getting picked by Anderson - ``critical errors,'' Jackson noted.

``He's coming back and trying to find himself,'' said Rick Fox. ``I'm sure right now he is pressing a little bit to find a rhythm with us. . . . (We) just try to remain patient and hope he recognizes that he doesn't have to save the world. We were doing pretty good. Come along and be part of this. He's an addition, he's not a subtraction.''

Bryant nearly atoned for it all, scoring eight straight points in the fourth to cut the Kings lead to 89-80 wth 4:16 to go. But the best the Lakers could do was get the lead down to seven points. They didn't make a jumpshot the rest of the way.

Harper was 0 for 7 for the night. Derek Fisher, who went to the bench to make room for Bryant, was 4 for 14 in his first relief performance since last season. Glen Rice struggled for the second straight game, going 3 for 12.

Defense, the Lakers' new calling card, also failed them. O'Neal got in early foul trouble, leading to an obvious hesitancy that netted him just nine rebounds and no blocked shots.

``I thought (the foul trouble) changed the way he played defense,'' Jackson said. ``He's been a big enforcer for us inside and I thought he just had to step back and allowed things to happen to our interior defense.''

O'Neal said he had no choice.

``When they play the game b.s. like that, you just have to step back a little bit,'' he said. ``I gotta stay in the game. When they call b.s. like that, what else can I do?''

CAPTION(S):

photo, chart

PHOTO (color) Shaquille O'Neal apparently had it over Sacramento's Vlade Divac on this play but it was the Kings' day.

Bob Galbraith/Associated Press

CHART: Game recap