LOS ANGELES — LeBron James was the king. The injured, hobbled Kobe Bryant was merely a member of his court.

James received his second consecutive MVP trophy a week after Bryant scored 12 points in a playoff game against the Thunder, his lowest postseason output in six years. He looked like a guy who had logged more than 44,000 minutes in more than 1,200 games.

Fast forward to now, an NBA reality check in which the Cavaliers have been eliminated and Bryant is four victories from his fifth NBA championship while playing some of the best basketball of his career.

"At this time right now, he's the best player in basketball," Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. "And I don't think it's even close."

The Lakers have a score to settle with the Celtics. So does Bryant.

He was the regular-season Most Valuable Player in 2008 but was outplayed by Boston forward Paul Pierce in the Finals, shooting poorly throughout the series and bottoming out in the Lakers' blowout Game 6 loss, scoring 22 points on dreadful 7-for-22 shooting. For the series, he averaged 25.7 points and shot a mere 40.5 percent.

Bryant doesn't reveal much in interviews these days, part of an us-against-the-world mantra he adopts during the playoffs.

He was asked why he didn't seem overly excited about the matchup between the historic rivals.

"I'm playing in it," Bryant said. "That's for other people to get excited about. I get excited about winning."

Baxter Holmes contributed to this report.

mbresnahan@tribune.com