I'm at a Laker road game against the Warriors to ask Horace Grant about his pregame routine. But I also throw him a question about the similarities between the Scottie-Michael and Shaq-Kobe relationships. Ho smiles and nods when I suggest that Pip and MJ are as different from each other as Shaq and Kobe are. Kobe, like MJ, sees the team as a vehicle to be driven to victory. That condescension can be irksome, especially to the vehicle's next-best driver. So it was with Pip. So it is with Shaq.

The Lakers lose in OT. A ticked Shaq tells us to "Write what you see." Here's what I saw: Down the stretch, Shaq and Kobe run a side pick-and-roll on nearly every possession -- and each time, Kobe drives to the baseline for a fadeaway or to attack the basket. Not one lob to Shaq rolling to the hoop. "Drop it off," Shaq says he told Kobe at one point. But Kobe doesn't, because he expects the Warriors to foul the big guy, and he doesn't trust him to make the free throws. You can't blame Kobe. And anyway, how many times did we see MJ kick the ball to Pip for a game-winning shot?

With the Lakers trailing by six in OT, Kobe nails a tough fadeaway, then picks Larry Hughes for a breakaway jam. The Warriors call timeout, but when Kobe jogs to the bench, only Mark Madsen and Devean George high-five him. Kobe finishes with 51 (as does Antawn Jamision -- woo!), but Bryant's disconsolate -- whether from the loss or the freeze-out, I'm not sure.

It sure is lonely at the top.

Ric Bucher is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at ric.bucher@espnmag.com.