Bryant expects to play with dislocated finger

Jan 21, 2009 - 5:04 PM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Despite a dislocated right ring finger that is causing him considerable discomfort, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant wants to keep playing.

Bryant said he expects to be in the lineup for Wednesday's contest against the Los Angeles Clippers - even though he said the pain he experienced Monday was the worst he has ever had to play through.

"I'm not concerned about it," Bryant told the Los Angeles Times. "I'll figure it out."

Bryant dislocated the finger in the first quarter of Monday's 105-88 win over Cleveland when he tried to steal the ball from LeBron James.

Despite the injury, Bryant played nearly 41 minutes, finishing with 20 points, 12 assists and six rebounds as the Lakers snapped a two-game skid.

"It's not fractured or anything like that," added Bryant, who played with a torn ligament in his right pinkie for an extended period last season. "I'm happy. I just made a stab at the ball and I think I caught it at the right angle.

"I just felt it slide out of place. At that point, I felt like I had done something much worse than what actually happened."

Bryant, the NBA's third leading scorer at 27.0 points per game, missed practice Tuesday and was wearing a plastic splint on the finger.

"He's going to have an adjustment period to go through," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "These (injuries) are things that you just don't want to do anything with that hand, let alone play basketball or pound the ball or dribble it or shoot it. It's a lot of difficulty, but it's a trademark of who Kobe is."