Steve Aschburner of the Star Tribune reports that for a dozen games, Kobe Bryant got to experience what life is like, night in, night out for Kevin Garnett.

It did not go well. As talented and driven as the Los Angeles Lakers' shooting guard is, for all his 40-point games (three) and triple-double heroics (two), Bryant couldn't lift the Lakers beyond a 3-9 start without Shaquille O'Neal in the lineup.

O'Neal is back now, the big toe on his right foot sufficiently healed to allow a vintage, dominant performance (33 points, 13 rebounds, 43 minutes) Friday in the Lakers' 112-106 overtime victory at Memphis. Bryant scored 45 and still, it took five extra minutes to beat the 2-14 Grizzlies.

"We're in the process of getting better as a ballclub," Bryant said afterward.

Now consider Garnett, once more his team's only constant. Like Bryant for those dozen games, the Wolves' star forward is a Top 5 talent, but without an O'Neal, a Pippen, a McHale or any other available sidekick capable of competing at an All-Star, much less Hall of Fame, level. And Garnett has done it for 17 games now, while facing another 10 days to two weeks before Wally Szczerbiak returns from his sprained left little toe.