SOLO ACT A BIG RISK CHALLENGE: OTHERS MUST BE INVOLVED.

Byline: ROSS SILER Staff Writer

EL SEGUNDO - For all the connections to Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor and Michael Jordan this season, Kobe Bryant will head into the playoffs with little comparison.

Having scored 35.4 points a game in the regular season, having accounted for more than a third of his team's total scoring, the question for Bryant and the Lakers is whether they can be more than a one-man show in their first-round series.

The expectation as the Lakers open the playoffs today against the Phoenix Suns is more of the same out of Bryant. He could even threaten Jerry West's record average of 46.3 points for a playoff series against Baltimore in the 1965 Western Division finals.

But the history of teams that rely on such a prolific scorer in the playoffs is mixed as best. Lakers coach Phil Jackson seemed to recognize that in stressing last week the need not to have Bryant score 40points or more to win.

"The team has to score probably 100 points at least to beat Phoenix," Jackson said. "You're not going to keep Phoenix from scoring points. So if you're relying on one guy to do that, it's going to be difficult."

That is easier said than done. Bryant averaged 42.5points in four games against the Suns this season, including an arena-record 51points at US Airways Center earlier this month. He will head into the playoffs having averaged 41.6 points in April alone.

The Lakers have talked about the need to work from the inside out against the Suns, slowing the game and getting the ball to Kwame Brown and Lamar Odom in the post.

"You can kind of like walk the ball to the rim," Odom said. "They don't have any 7-foot guys out there."

But the Lakers would have to go away from Bryant to do so. It will be a task made more difficult if Bryant is not double-teamed by the Suns, as Jackson expects, unless Bryant gets on a roll and has a one-on-one matchup against Raja Bell.

After Ron Artest and Bruce Bowen, Bell might be the best defender in the league when it comes to playing Bryant. And the Suns seem inclined to let Bryant shoot as many times as he wants and concentrate on stopping the other Lakers.

"Hopefully I can get him engaged again and he wants to score 80 on me," Bell told the Associated Press. "If he scores 80, maybe they win, but if he scores 60, maybe we do."

Bryant was asked about Jackson's desire for him not to score 40 a game - "First of all, that sounds crazy," he said - and how the Lakers will find a way to win otherwise.

"Obviously, we're going to be able to read their defense and figure out ways to attack them with Kwame, with Lamar," Bryant said, "and how to best utilize them, and then me picking my spots and taking over the game."

There is little precedent for a team playing with a single scorer like Bryant. He averaged 20 points a game more than Odom, the Lakers' No. 2 scorer, and accounted for 34.7percent of the Lakers' points, the fourth- highest percentage in NBA history.

Chamberlain scored 40.1percent of the Philadelphia Warriors' points in 1961-62 and 37.8 percent the season after that. Jordan scored 35.4 percent of the Chicago Bulls' points in 1986-87, the season he averaged 37.1per game.

Chamberlain's teams lost to Boston in the Eastern Division finals and failed to make the playoffs, finishing 31-49, after moving to San Francisco the next season. Jordan's Bulls were swept 3-0 by the Celtics in the first round.

The best comparison for Bryant's Lakers might come with Jordan's Bulls teams. After losing in the first round in 1987, the Bulls beat Cleveland in the first round the following season and advanced to the Eastern Conference finals the next two.

Fast forward to the present, and Jackson said he could see the similarities between a team with Bryant and a team with Steve Nash, the Suns' dynamic guard and last season's league MVP.

"If you can stop Nash, you can hold the other guys down," Jackson said. "It seems that both teams have almost the same message.

"With us, we want to make sure that other guys are feeling part of the offense and they're feeling like they have to contribute so they don't just relax. They have to do a job."

Odom said the key in not relying on Bryant as a scorer would be strong play by the Lakers at the defensive end.

"When we get down," Odom said, "and we put a lot of pressure on our offense, of course with him being a scorer and a great scorer, he tries to put us on his shoulders."

[e-mail]

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

11 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1) Kobe Bryant has scored almost 35 percent of the Lakers' points, but Phil Jackson said others must step up.

Noah Graham/Getty Images

(2) SMUSH PARKER

(3) STEVE NASH

(4) KOBE BRYANT

(5) RAJA BELL

(6) KWAME BROWN

(7) BORIS DIAW

(8) LAMAR ODOM

(9) SHAWN MARION

(10) LUKE WALTON

(11) TIM THOMAS

Box:

(1) WESTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND, BEST-OF-7

(2) LAKERS MATCHUPS SUNS