Jeremy Lin still looking for his starring role

Jeremy Lin has seen this before, often a supporting actor on the NBA stage.

He played two years next to James Harden, Houston’s shooting guard in title only who loved to have the ball in his hands at all times. It ended up costing Lin his starting spot, the Rockets demoting him to second string so he could be a more natural point guard instead of a spot-up shooter playing off Harden’s whims.

Lin is going through it again, trying to adjust to Kobe Bryant’s ball-handling preferences with the Lakers. It’s not going well.

Lin is averaging 6.5 points and 3.5 assists while shooting 30% in two blowout losses.

“I’ve just got to find a way, find my role out there,� Lin said after the Lakers’ 119-99 setback Wednesday in Phoenix. “That’s something that me and [Bryant] are in communication about a lot. All the time. It’s going to be that way any time you throw two new players together.�

Lin, 26, was acquired by the Lakers, along with Houston’s first-round pick next year, with an eye toward Steve Nash’s unsteady medical future. When Nash was declared out this season, Lin got the starting job.

The Lakers are dying for him to at least match his numbers from his first season in Houston — 13.4 points and 6.1 assists a game. It’s no secret they’d like Lin to take pressure off Bryant.

“He has to learn to play with the ball and without the ball,� Lakers Coach Byron Scott said. “He’s just playing with a lot of indecision right now on his behalf. He just has to get a little more comfortable with what we’re doing.�

The sample size is small, no doubt, and Lin missed almost two weeks of exhibition play because of two sprained ankles that could only be called indicative of the Lakers season so far.

Lin came down on Robert Sacre’s foot during training camp and, when he was set to return about a week later, sprained the other ankle while doing individual workouts.

It hasn’t been the best start for a player in a contract year. But there are many, many months between now and April 15.

“The goal is for me to find a way to be able to facilitate that [scoring] while at the same time being able to complement [Bryant] and bring what I can bring to the table,� Lin said.

There’s always Bryant

Lost amid the injuries, another blowout and general Lakers malaise was the game uncorked by the NBA’s most polarizing player.

Love him or leave him, Bryant scored 31 points against Phoenix.

He hadn’t hit that mark since April 12, 2013, the game in which his Achilles’ tendon snapped in half.

Nobody proclaimed it would happen every time for the 36-year-old, even though the Lakers might need Bryant to score 50 a game at this point. There was at least one player who reacted with wonderment.

“He’s definitely not the 40th-best player in the league,� said Phoenix forward Marcus Morris, who guarded Bryant. “He’s always going to be top five, top 10.�

Bryant displayed a little of everything on offense, not all of it perfect and much of it drowning in a sea of an otherwise stagnant Lakers night.

One stretch was telling: He airballed a shot near the top of the key as the shot clock expired, but on the next possession took a two-on-one break right at Suns 7-footer Alex Len and scored with a left-handed scoop shot.

He added three assists, two steals and was two for four from three-point range.

“I told you guys from the beginning I am back to myself,� Bryant said.

If there was a mild minus, it was the high shot volume, Bryant taking 25 and making 11, a 44% success rate that was one percentage point below his career accuracy.

“Kobe, he can score 30 points, but he took a lot of shots,� Suns guard Goran Dragic said. “I think the percentage was not so good. That’s what we wanted to do.�

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Twitter: @Mike_Bresnahan