From softies to bad boys.

From a twitchy city braced for the worst back to the usual show of too cool to care.

Didn't they always say if you don't like what is going on with the Lakers, just wait a day? Or maybe just 15 minutes?

About 15 hours after restoring relative calm with their 16-point playoff victory Tuesday against New Orleans in Game 5, Lakers Coach Phil Jackson had another number in mind for Kobe Bryant and his swollen and sprained left ankle.

The Lakers are up 3-2 in their first-round playoff series against the Hornets, and Game 6 is Thursday at New Orleans.

"This is a game we go all out to win," Jackson said after Wednesday's video session and half-court scrimmage for the reserves at the team's facility in El Segundo. "If this is 40 minutes [playing time for Bryant], we do it."

Yesterday's liability to today's ironman.

Bryant went from looking like a decoy in the first quarter Tuesday against the Hornets, taking only one shot, to a dervish dunker by the end of the game. He was not available for comment Wednesday. But Bryant seemed amused, postgame, by Jackson's comment that he was a liability in the first quarter of Game 5, noting that word was "kind of strong."

Meanwhile, the Lakers' training staff was hard at work trying to minimize the swelling in Bryant's ankle.

"He's sore, obviously," Jackson said Wednesday, "Trying to get the swelling down again. The whole process he started on Sunday [was] to try to eliminate the swelling and get some of the soreness out of that joint."

Bryant played 28 minutes in Game 5, and was needed for just 2:58 in the fourth quarter because of the Lakers' big lead.

"We're certainly not out of the woods on this kind of situation just because he played the day after or two days after he sprained his ankle," Jackson said.

With all the attention focused on Bryant's left ankle in the last few days, Jackson, before Game 5, managed to subtly slip in a reference to Pau Gasol's illness. Gasol is averaging 6.6 rebounds in this series and had rough outings in the first two games but came back with 16 points Tuesday, shooting six for 12 from the field.

Gasol said he has been affected "a little" by an upper respiratory illness.

"I don't know how much," he said. "I just play. Some nights I play better than others. Some nights I feel better. It's something that's been going on. But I never talk about it or bring it up, because it is what it is."

He didn't have to say anything when the issue of the Lakers' toughness came up. Hornets Coach Monty Williams said after Game 5 that the Lakers were more physical and that "a lot of it is just not basketball."

Gasol shrugged, saying more with that gesture than he could have done with a few minutes of chatter. In Game 5, the Lakers outrebounded the Hornets, 42-25, and had an overwhelming edge (22-2) on second-chance points.

Still, Gasol went on to tackle the issue of physicality.

"We try to play hard, obviously," he said. "We try to win the series and whatever it takes. Playoff basketball is more of a physical game. We stepped up and just got to keep it up. I don't think we're going over the line at all."

Said Jackson, tongue in cheek: "It was pretty interesting. We're not known for that. We're known for being soft. Sometimes desperation can get teams activated."

This playoff series seems to be following the path of last year's victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder, in which the Lakers won the final two games after the series was tied 2-2. Gasol was asked whether the players talked about having a killer instinct in these situations.

"We must. If you give a team life, then you open up doors you don't want to open," Gasol said.

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

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Times correspondent Mark Medina contributed to this report.

It could have been broken, but Bryant didn't know — or didn't want to know — which was why he nixed the medical staff's plan to have him get an MRI.

"Well, I was moving OK," said Bryant, after limping through a scoreless first quarter, then going on to lead Lakers scorers with 19 points in their 106-90 victory.

Bill Plaschke: Kobe Bryant brings a special twist to his latest drama

"I didn't feel like it was broke or anything like that.

"If it was, it wouldn't have mattered anyway because I was going to play anyway.

"It would have been a waste of time -- go all the way up there [to a hospital] and do that and sit in 4 o'clock traffic for two hours.

Video: Lakers discuss their 106-90 victory over New Orleans

"I don't know why you guys [press] are so concerned about an MRI. It's not like we would have told you the results anyway."

Gee, no kidding.

All last season, Bryant hid the severity of a knee problem, which required off-season surgery. In Kobe Bryant style, he appeared to be trying to hide this too, insisting, "It was all right. I was a little stiff, but it loosened up.

"The first couple minutes, I was ready to go. The flow just moved toward Andrew [Bynum] and Pau [Gasol].

"I kinda sat back and allowed that to happen. In the second quarter, I got busy."

Actually, he sat so far back, he took no shots in the first quarter.

Also, the man he was trying to guard, Trevor Ariza, burned him for 10 fast points, at which point Coach Phil Jackson switched Ron Artest onto Ariza and Bryant onto the slower Marco Belinelli.

Jackson said his thought while watching Bryant in the first quarter was: "Better get him off the floor. He's a liability."

The liability's ankle did seem to "loosen up." In the second quarter, he seemed to will himself into the action, hitting one jumper and then, seeing an alley to the basket, launching himself into it, tomahawking a dunk over Emeka Okafor that broke the place up.

" Shannon Brown said you haven't dunked like that since you had an afro," someone said afterward.

"Yeah," said Bryant, "and he was like 2."

Bryant said his teammates "know I save those. I don't have much of those left anymore."

Well, he had at least one more.

In the third period, Bryant threw down another spectacular windmill dunk, this one left-handed.

By then, the Hornets, who came out on fire, taking an early nine-point lead, were through.

Under duress — a recitation of his misadventures in the first quarter with Jackson's "liability" assessment — Bryant acknowledged he really did start out limited.

"Yeah, it was stiff," he said. "I had a hard time moving and stuff like that.

"But you know, my ability's kinda strong."

Before coming to the press room, Bryant was seen heading to the shower with a noticeable limp. Forty-eight more hours of treatment, like the last 48, and he'll be as good as new. Or that will be his story, anyway.

Then Bryant eased his way down the hallway to the postgame interview room, hardly any limp, just a steady, slow walk on a sprained left ankle.

Bryant played 28 minutes 38 seconds on the injured ankle, scoring 19 points on eight-for-13 shooting, doing his part to help the Lakers defeat the New Orleans Hornets, 106-90, to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference playoff series.

T.J. Simers: Lakers show they are able to win a game on purpose

Now Bryant sat in a chair, surveying the room, knowing almost every question would be about the ankle he injured in the fourth quarter of Game 4 in New Orleans.

"It's felt all right," Bryant said.

When Bryant went down Sunday night, he looked anything but all right.

Bill Plaschke: Kobe Bryant brings a special twist to his latest drama

He walked out of New Orleans Arena on crutches.

Then he had to take the four-hour flight back to Los Angeles.

He had refused to get an MRI or any kind of examination on the ankle Monday.

So after Tuesday night's game, Bryant was asked to describe what he did over the last two days to get the ankle ready enough to play.

"What, am I on a reality show?" Bryant said to laughs.

Bryant then said he gave the ankle around-the-clock treatment, getting little sleep in the process.

"The mobility is good," Bryant said. "That's really the key. You don't want it to get stiff."

Early on, Bryant looked the part of an injured player.

He had difficulty on defense.

He didn't take a shot in the first quarter.

He scored his first point on a free throw with 5:46 left in the first.

It's swollen with sorcery. It's twisted with drama. It's black and blue and Kobe all over.

Bryant was too injured to lead the Lakers to Game 5 survival? He suckered the Hornets into believing it just long enough to dunk on their glistening heads, shoot over their weary arms and pass around their knocking knees.

Two days ago, after apparently spraining his left ankle in the final minutes of the Game 4 loss in New Orleans, Bryant acted as if he couldn't walk.

On Tuesday, after a slow start, he literally flew, scoring 19 points with four assists in leading the Lakers to a 106-90 victory and three-games-to-two lead.

"We're not all built the same way," Bryant said with a sly smile. "It's the beauty of modern medicine."

Not everyone appreciated the theater.

"That's what he does," said Hornets Coach Monty Williams. "All that talk about his ankle, it didn't look like his ankle was hurting."

There were six Lakers in double figures, Andrew Bynum added 10 rebounds, the struggling champions helped each other on defense enough to slow Chris Paul down to 20 points — it was the sort of team effort that is required against these pesky Hornets.

But on this night, the room was owned by Bryant, who limped up on the moment and then stole it in a stunning sprint.

"It was a little stiff," Bryant said of the ankle. "But it loosened up."

A little stiff? He began the evening hobbling into Staples Center. He spent the pregame warmups throwing up careful shots with the tiniest of jumps. He shuffled through a first quarter that ended with him on the bench wrapped in towels, no shots, no rebounds, Lakers trailing by nine, his city in a slow panic.

When asked what he thought about Bryant in that first quarter, Lakers Coach Phil Jackson did not mince words.

Said Jackson: "Better get him off the floor, he's a liability."

Said Bryant: "Liability is a strong word."

But then, well, it was as if Bryant tore off the ankle bandage and wrapped it around the Hornets' necks. His surge began with a thunderous dunk late in the second quarter, and continued with a spectacular soaring, left-handed slam in the third quarter. It ended with the fans, for one of the first times this season, actually chanting "MVP" like they really meant it.

Does this further cement Bryant's reputation as a warrior? With no doctor confirming the extent of the injury suffered late Sunday, who knows?

Does this further cement Bryant's reputation for being all Hollywood? Those test results have long since been positive.

Bryant began his encouragement of the Hornets when he conducted his Game 4 postgame interview from a trainer's room, then left the New Orleans Arena on crutches. He added to the drama Monday when he refused to undergo an MRI exam that would have confirmed the extent of the injury.

After all, the guy plays hard. And hurt.

Bryant had 19 points and two dunks suitable for framing as he poked and prodded the Lakers to a 106-90 victory Tuesday over the New Orleans Hornets at Staples Center.

Bryant somehow shot better with one good ankle (eight for 13, 62%) than he did the first four games (42%) as the Lakers took a 3-2 lead in the first-round playoff series.

If the Lakers win Game 6 in New Orleans on Thursday, they won't play again until next Monday.

They can thank Bryant for the renewal of momentum, or hope, or whatever you want to call it.

He walked out of New Orleans Arena on a pair of aluminum crutches on Sunday night and appeared to be walking stiffly when he arrived a couple of hours before Game 5.

To the end, he rebuffed the team's demand that he get an MRI exam and X-rays.

Hey, whatever works, apparently.

"Did it look like his ankle was hurting?" New Orleans Coach Monty Williams said sarcastically.

Out of nowhere, as the Lakers languished yet again against the undermanned Hornets, Bryant drove down the middle and dunked over center Emeka Okafor in the second quarter.

"It looked like he was going to challenge me at the rim and I just accepted the challenge," Bryant said. "[Teammates] know I save those. I don't have a lot of those left anymore."

In the third quarter, as the Lakers started to advance from a 54-51 halftime edge, Bryant flew past Trevor Ariza and beat Carl Landry for a dunk.

Worth mentioning: It was left-handed.

"It was a little stiff, but it loosened up," Bryant said of his ankle. "The more I played the looser it got."

Bryant soon added a double-pump layup after slicing through Landry and Okafor.

"He played young," forward Ron Artest said.

Said Ariza: "Some injury."

Bryant played almost 29 minutes. He wasn't the only effective one on the Lakers.

Five teammates finished in double figures, the ideal crutch for Kobe Bryant, and all is well again in Lakersland.

The Lakers were so solid as a group, they had the Hornets looking like the team that should never have been in this series.

For a change of routine, there was no reason to stand around and watch Bryant do everything as the Lakers do so often.

Maybe that's why Phil Jackson was smiling before this one, everyone else worried about Bryant, but Jackson grinning when asked if he might have to do some coaching in Game 5.

What could be more fun with possibly only 15 or so games remaining in an iconic career than to do some coaching and get the best out of players who might not be the best?

As former NBA coach Doug Moe used to say, if a team loses its best player, you can count on that team still winning as others are forced to raise their games.

Lose that really good player for extended time, though, and that's a different story.

Bryant took the floor with his teammates, but he wasn't himself, later going to the bench and sitting seemingly uninterested as his teammates huddled around Jackson.

The others had to notice, already aware he only bounced a ball hours earlier at a shoot-around. They had to know the Lakers were going to be in trouble if they didn't show up.

So Derek Fisher hit five of his first six shots, every starter in double figures save Ron Artest with nine points after three quarters. No need for the "closer" if everyone else has already killed off the Hornets.

Even the Invisible Man, Pau Gasol, played tough — the ideal companion for Andrew Bynum's bruising game inside. Throw in an animated Lamar Odom, as well as contributions from Matt Barnes, Shannon Brown and even Steve Blake and it was a Big Easy 16-point win.

"You saw the switch of hustle points," Jackson said, his team forcing the Hornets into 19 turnovers. "I thought we played a little more purposeful."

Amazing what happens when players have to play.

THERE WAS one thing on everyone's mind as Jackson stepped to the microphone for pregame comments: The game-time health of Bryant.

So Lakers' broadcaster John Ireland began by asking Jackson if he had given any thought to the possibility this might be his last game coached at Staples Center?

Nice to see Ireland cares more for Jackson than Bryant, but in this case even Jeanie would be more interested to know what was going on with Kobe.

ONCE IRELAND shut up, and surprisingly there was no applause, Jackson was asked whether Bryant was doing the smart thing by not undergoing medical tests.

"If he knows it's nothing, if it's a minor injury and he knows his body that well, I think that's OK," Jackson said. "I'm not going to question that.''