SORE KNEE KEEPS BRYANT ON BENCH.

Byline: ROSS SILER Staff Writer

How did Kobe Bryant go from dunking the ball four times in practice Monday -- something he bragged about doing for the first time in years -- to sitting out the Lakers' season opener?

The simple answer is that Bryant woke up Tuesday, tested out his right knee on the steps of his home, and realized he couldn't play.

``This morning it was a little sore,'' Bryant said. ``The thing about the knee is you want to string together a series of days where you feel pretty good.

``We don't want to get to a point where we play the season and the next day we've got to monitor the soreness of the knee, be cautious and things like that.

``I've been out now for 3 1/2 months, so we don't want to throw that away senselessly. We want to make sure we really nail this thing down.''

Bryant will not make the trip to Oakland for tonight's game against the Golden State Warriors. The Lakers will play a home-and-home set of games with Seattle after that, Friday at Staples Center and Sunday at Key Arena.

``I think that he wants to be there desperately,'' Lakers coach Phil Jackson said of Bryant . ``He was very disappointed not to be able to do it (Tuesday).''

After missing only two games last season -- the result of a league suspension for delivering an elbow to Memphis guard Mike Miller's head -- Bryant already is guaranteed to miss as many games this season.

It has been nearly 16 weeks since Bryant underwent knee surgery on July 15. The timetable originally had him missing between eight and 12 weeks, which possibly including the start of training camp.

But Bryant has been slow to recover, even though his surgery has been described simply as a procedure to clear out scar tissue. Bryant revealed Tuesday that his doctor's original timetable for him to recover was around four months.

``That's the most frustrating thing, is scar tissue has a mind of its own,'' Bryant said. ``It's tough to try to rush it. We treat it and we do the things we can do to get the scar tissue to release. It's definitely getting there, though. It's feeling a lot better than it was.''

Jackson, who described Bryant's surgery as a ``month-out'' injury over the weekend, said he agreed with the decision not to play, although he would have left the final say to Bryant.

``We've watched him try to work his way through this,'' Jackson said. ``We understand full well what he's going through.''

The dunks showed Bryant that he still has the explosiveness in his game, although his knee is sore when he flexes it at deep angles.

``It's just such a day-to-day thing with this knee,'' Bryant said. ``That's just how it is.''

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

(color) Kobe Bryant welcomes fans to the Lakers' season opener.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

Box:

LAKERS at GOLDEN STATE

- Ross Siler