LAKERS NOTEBOOK: BRYANT'S JET-SETTING DAYS OVER.

Byline: Howard Beck Staff Writer

The worst is potentially over for Kobe Bryant, at least where balancing basketball and court commitments are concerned.

When Bryant entered a ``not guilty'' plea in an Eagle, Colo. court room Tuesday afternoon, it concluded the final extensive hearing scheduled during the season.

And it provided the most startling contrast yet of Bryant's dual existence as defendant and basketball star.

Early Tuesday afternoon, he quietly uttered his plea for a live television audience.

Hours later, he was in the starting lineup for the Lakers' playoff game against the San Antonio Spurs.

``I'm sure it's very difficult. It was a long deliberation,'' coach Phil Jackson said.

``I think he's probably glad it's finally come to a decision where they have been able to make a plea one way or the other.''

The arraignment came a day earlier than expected, a boon to the Lakers. Rather than spend another day in court, Bryant will be at practice in El Segundo this morning and on the team's afternoon flight to San Antonio.

``He has a recovery day here,'' Jackson said. ``There will be some more cohesiveness, I think, to the way it's going to work out (today).''

Bryant's lone court appearance between now and the offseason is a May 27 hearing to set a trial date. Should the Lakers advance, that hearing would fall in the middle of the conference finals. But his next extended court appearance won't come until June 21, a day after the Finals are scheduled to conclude.

--All heart: Jackson called his cardiologist Monday, the one-year anniversary of an emergency angioplasty that possibly saved his life, and said thanks.

The procedure caused Jackson to miss Game 4 of the Lakers' conference semifinal series against the Spurs. Given the date, playoff opponent and arrival of another Game 4, Jackson was in a reflective mood.

``A lot of thinking about last year's series, obviously the same team, just a different day. Same game,'' Jackson said. ``Hopefully, the same outcome.''

With assistant coach Jim Cleamons at the helm and Jackson in bed, the Lakers won Game 4. Jackson returned the next day, and the Lakers lost the series in six games.

``It's obviously a very difficult kind of decision to have to make, to interrupt a season, a job and make that kind of a decision,'' Jackson said. ``You've got a lot of medical people that are pulling you from one direction, and a team and family people that are trying to get you to do what is medically right, but yet still trying to stay attuned to what physically and emotionally you're set about doing, and that's being a basketball coach.

``It's very difficult. And I think in retrospect, thinking about trying to put the energy into Games 5 and 6 that occurred after that, there's a lot of air that went out of our effort last year simply because the procedure went on.''

--Slow lane: Rush-hour traffic delayed a bus carrying the entire San Antonio coaching staff and several Spurs players to the game. They arrived about 6:15 p.m.

``It was a little crowded out there,'' said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.

``I forgot where we were.''