The reigning MVP is having an MVP season and will retain his title by season's end.

To win a most valuable player award doesn't always guarantee a world title. Bryant is certainly stalking that first NBA championship without Shaquille O'Neal, the man generally credited as being the backbone of those Lakers teams earlier this decade.

This L.A. team has a new backbone and it's Bryant, who is generally regarded as one of the most popular and most hated players in the game. Boos cascaded down from the AT&T Center when he was introduced but cheers could be heard from Lakers fans wearing No. 24 jerseys after he hit his first bucket.

Give the San Antonio Spurs props for hanging in there after falling behind by 18 points in the first half against a team that is favored to represent the Western Conference in the finals this summer. But also give Bryant credit for making plays down the stretch that gave the Lakers a solid 102-95 win over a solid ballclub.

The Lakers are 52-13 and the first Western Conference team to qualify for the playoffs, and it's Bryant smartly picking his spots on a team that's played consistently all year. He won't win the scoring title - that will probably go to Miami's Dwyane Wade - but his overall play and the killer instinct that makes him the game's best closer since Jordan gives him the edge over Wade and LeBron James in the MVP race.

Bryant is the pick because he is the best player, playing on the best team, while making the plays necessary to get his team wins.

In this stable of three thoroughbreds, Bryant gets the edge because he is playing the way Jordan played in his Chicago days - as the league's best player performing well within a team concept. He appears comfortable within the Lakers' offense now. No longer waving off Phil Jackson's triangle, he is getting his shots without forcing them and the jumper is flowing like a river.

He provided proof Thursday on several occasions:

After a Spurs run cut the Lakers' lead to 64-55 in the third quarter, Bryant was double-teamed on the baseline. The younger Bryant would have risen up over the two defenders and tried a low-percentage shot, but not the 30-year-old veteran of 12 NBA summers. Bryant skipped a pass over to a waiting Derek Fisher, who buried a three-pointer.

Again, after the Spurs cut the lead to five in the fourth, Tim Duncan and Roger Mason trapped Bryant near the corner, but he jumped up and found Pau Gasol underneath for a dunk.

And then there was that jumper over Hill with the shot clock winding down. He's like an old heavyweight fighter uninterested in pleasing the crowd. He does what it takes to win.

Bryant has grown into his role as a veteran leader, something that would have gotten league-wide laughs years ago after the highly publicized divorce between him and O'Neal. The author of "The Last Season" who called Bryant "uncoachable" was correct in his assessment. That author was Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who has since changed his mind, for good reason.

With Bryant leading the league's top team, it should be pointed out that MVPs are rarely given to one-man gangs playing on bad teams like former Texas star Kevin Durant, who is averaging 26.0 points per game for Oklahoma City, which ranks fourth in the league. James has a good supporting case and, while Wade could be considered a one-man show in Miami, he has an above-average group of teammates who are doing their part to keep the Heat in playoff contention.

While he is deserving of this trophy, Bryant has benefited greatly from the gift of Pau Gasol from Memphis and the presence of solid pros Lamar Odom and Fisher. Jordan benefited from having Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant around. Bird had McHale and Parish. Magic had Kareem and Worthy.

Bryant is the best player on the league's deepest ballclub and he appears fresher at this point of the year than he was during the 2008 finals appearance.

If Thursday's performance was not enough to convince one of Bryant's impending repeat, his previous night's torching of Houston was proof that he is the front-runner. After being held to six points in the first half by Houston's two-headed shutdown combo of Ron Artest and Shane Battier, Bryant scored 18 points in the last 4:31 and finished with 37.

Along the way he got into a fourth-quarter shoving match with Artest, who began jawing at him in the final two minutes.

"He should know better,'' he said of Artest's trash-talking.

Spoken like a superstar who has won an MVP.

Spoken like a superstar who will win another.

cgolden@statesman.com; 912-5944