A nose for a nose?
Bryant not interested in payback. His teammates might need restraint.
It could be the masked man versus the marked one.
A week after Dwyane Wade smacked Kobe Bryant in the nose and the rest of the NBA winced, the All-star duo will share the court again Sunday afternoon at Staples Center.
If there are hard feelings, they apparently reside only with Bryant’s Lakers teammates.
Wade apologized for the hard foul he committed last weekend in Orlando, and Bryant not only downplayed the incident but also praised his Miami Heat counterpart as being a “nicer guy than I am.”
Wade might not find the Lakers not wearing No. 24 to be so pleasant.
Lakers forward Matt Barnes hinted earlier in the week that pay-
back was possible, that he and fellow brute Metta World Peace might get physical with the Heat.
But center Andrew Bynum said Saturday that he would have to avoid any overt roughness because officials and the league office would be watching closely.
“I can’t do anything,” Bynum said. “If I do anything, they’re going to definitely hit me [with punishment]. It [stinks]. It’s not good. It’s just unfortunate and something we’ve got to deal with.”
Bryant did not practice Saturday or speak with reporters after receiving more treatment on his neck, which has been sore since he sustained whiplash symptoms after the blow to his nose. He has averaged 34.5 points on 51% shooting while wearing a protective mask in victories over Minnesota and Sacramento.
The device that Bryant is again expected to wear Sunday hasn’t hindered his performance … or his appearance.
“He’s still a goodlooking guy to most women,” Lakers Coach Mike Brown said. “I don’t think the mask makes him look any more freaky-looking or ugly. It brings out another side of him probably, but his play, he’s been playing fine. He’s been playing efficient for us.”
Miami (28-8) has won nine of 10 games but could be without All-star forward-center Chris Bosh, who has missed the last two games to attend his grandmother’s funeral. Although Heat officials said Bosh’s status would not be announced until Sunday morning, Brown said he expected the big man to play.
Wade, who sat out the Heat’s 98-87 victory over the Lakers on Jan. 19 in Miami because of a sprained ankle, told reporters he was enticed by the prospect of playing Bryant, his former Olympic teammate.
“My favorite matchup is to go against Kobe,” Wade said. “It used to be Kobe and Lebron [James], and now he’s my teammate. When I get that challenge, guarding a guy like [Bryant], I’m always learning, but I’m always up for it, so I enjoy it.”
For his part, Bryant said he didn’t have a primary rival.
“I get up for everybody just the same, to be honest,” Bryant said late Friday night.
Couldn’t Wade become the perfect foil?
“He’s too young,” Bryant, 33, said of Wade, 30. “When I came in the league, he was school.”
The stars Bryant said he wanted to gauge himself against won’t be on the court Sunday.
“At this point,” said Bryant, who is midway through his 16th NBA season, “my rivals in terms of what I have left to accomplish in my career are Magic and Michael.”
That would be Magic Johnson, five-time champion and perhaps the greatest Laker of all time, and Michael Jordan, who has six titles, 32,292 points and exponentially more fans who consider him the best player in basketball history.
Bryant isn’t far away from those exploits, with his five titles and 28,903 points.
But if Bryant is to hoist a coveted sixth title, surpassing Johnson and equaling Jordan, he’ll have to do it by beating contemporaries such as James and Wade.
The Lakers (22-14) have fared particularly poorly against the NBA’S elite teams this season, going 1-7 versus Miami, Chicago, Oklahoma City, the Clippers, Orlando, Indiana and Philadelphia.
Bryant said playing the Heat would provide “a little bit of a measuring stick for us to see how much we’ve improved since the last time” the teams met.
Not much has changed in the rivalry since then, other than the foul that shook up an entire league.
in elementary
ben.bolch@latimes.com