Kobe Bryant Asks Lakers Teammates To Step Up On Offense While He Focuses On Defense - Jan. 18, 2013 News Update

Kobe Bryant's defense has kicked up several notches in the last few games.

Now, he's asking his teammates to step it up a notch on the offense.

Bryant was recently asked to be the primary defender against the most dangerous offensive players on other teams playing against the Lakers.

For a while, it seemed to be working, Bryant holding Cleveland's Kyrie Irving and Milwaukee's Brandon Jennings to 15 and 12 points, respectively, in back-to-back Laker wins. However, that busying work against the younger stars has been taking a physical toll on Bryant, and it caught up with him against Miami.

Bryant, who leads the NBA in scoring with 29.7 points per game, only scored 22 points and let Miami shooting guard Dwayne Wade score 27 points en route to a 99-90 Lakers loss to the defending NBA champions.

Now, Bryant is asking his teammates to step up and produce on offense while he tries to shut down opposing stars.

"If (guarding the opposing team's offensive threat) is going to be something that I'm going to have to do for a while, I'm going to need my teammates' help to free up offensively," Bryant told ESPN after the game. "Like we did in the fourth quarter -- create some picks for me, create some easy shots. That's going to be tough for me to guard the top guy and come down the other end and have to go one-on-one every play. So, I'm going to need some help."

Bryant spoke of the need to save energy for his offensive game, and the only way to do that is for his fellow Lakers to step it up on the other side of the floor by setting picks on offense, setting up catch-and-shoot plays and getting Bryant better looks at the basket.

"We talked about it going into the fourth quarter. I said, 'Coach D man, goddamn. Come on, man. Come on, man. I can't be standing out here like this all night long now,'" Bryant said, recalling a conversation with Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni. "We did a much better job of that. My teammates know. We got to pick each other up. I'm going to go out there and do what I got to do defensively, and then on the offensive end of the floor we'll pick each other up."

While the Lakers' aging team is one of the highest-scoring offenses in the league, ranked fourth in team offense with 103.1 points per game, it's also one of the worst defensive teams, ranking 26 out of 30 in points allowed with opponents scoring 101.4 points per game.

And with the Lakers currently five games under .500 and having lost seven of their last 10 games in a season high with expectations, Bryant's teammates are going to need to step it up.

Lakers point guard Steve Nash knows this.

Ideally, we should be able to make them pay in other areas of the court," Nash said after the game. "We should make problems for people with Dwight [Howard] on the block, Pau on the block. When they're doubling my pick-and-rolls, the game should open up because it should be a 3-on-2 or 2-on-1 on the weakside. I just don't think we were efficient enough elsewhere tonight. He shouldn't have to carry us like that all the time. We have good enough players that we should be able to take advantage of elsewhere on the court."

Coach Mike D'Antoni says that value of Bryant taking the lead on defense has been invaluable for the team

"Kobe being on the ball is a big deal. He sets the tone for us defensively. He has done that and taken on that leadership role, and when that happens, we've been pretty good lately," he said before the game.