Making up for Thursday's 5-for-24 effort with spectacular shooting, Bryant crushed the Jazz's spirits on Saturday with a 38-point outing on 16-for-24 marksmanship, leading Los Angeles to a 108-94 win in Game 4 at EnergySolutions Arena.

Bryant acknowledged that he smoked a cigar after Thursday's game to drive away the stench of that performance, then joked that he would divulge which kind of cigar after he signed an endorsement deal with the product.

The reigning MVP could afford to yuk it up at the postgame news conference -- a far cry from his mood two nights earlier.

quot;It felt good because [Utah] is a challenging team to play against,quot; Bryant said. quot;They are going to pop you, they are going to bump you with their arms. This was a big game for us. So, me coming off that semi-bad performance, that horrible performance I had last game, it feels good to kind of respond with a game like this.quot;

He chuckled at his own joke after saying quot;semi-bad.quot;

Five minutes into the game, Bryant's abysmal performance in Game 3 was a distant memory.

Bryant showed things would be different on this night as he made his first four shots, including one from the top of the key that he banked in over Ronnie Brewer.

quot;It was important for me to come out and be a little bit more assertive,quot; he said. quot;I was sitting back a little bit too much. As a result, you lose a feature in our offense, which is my scoring. So I wanted to come out and be a little bit more aggressive.quot;

Brewer, who was largely responsible for Bryant's 19 misses in Game 3, was in the superstar's face on many attempts, but Bryant kept draining shots from all over the court.

At times, the degree of difficulty was off the charts. But the shots kept going in -- fadeaways, twisting layups and a three-pointer for good measure.

quot;Kobe Bryant was spectacular,quot; said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. quot;We never could get close enough to guard him, really. He just shot through us, over us, whatever he took, he was very difficult for us to play.quot;

At one point, Bryant appeared on his way to 50.

He made 14 of his first 17 shots; at halftime, Bryant was 10-for-13 for 24 points.

quot;Sometimes I knew the shot clock was going down,quot; Brewer said. quot;I tried getting in his face and jumping early. He continued to hit those shots. That's what makes him a good player. ...We knew as a team he was going to come out aggressive and we tried to help the best we could as a team.quot;

Bryant played quite a bit in the fourth quarter, a surprise with the game out of hand, but made just two field goals, including a heavily defended 18-foot fadeaway with the shot clock about to expire.

Bryant's game -- he also had six rebounds and one assist in 39 minutes -- didn't surprise Sloan.

quot;Don't ever think that a player of Kobe Bryant's ability will not fight back,quot; Sloan said. quot;I had two of those guys on this team at one time. And if they had a bad game, they came back and gave everything they've got. ...I never said that we stopped Kobe Bryant. I knew better.quot;

drew@sltrib.com Kobe fights back

Kobe Bryant in 2009 series vs. Jazz