Inside the Lakers' training room at Staples Center, there is a framed photograph of two young men just beginning to realize their potential.

There, with a shimmering NBA championship trophy, are a beaming 21-year-old Kobe Bryant and a radiant 28-year-old Shaquille O'Neal.

Not the sort of picture a defeated person usually likes to see.

And yet, as an older and wiser Bryant glanced at it Thursday night ? just moments after the three-year title run that began with that photograph had ended with a humbling 110-82 loss to the Spurs ? he did the strangest thing.