BOSTON – Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard had always been a reluctant partnership, two stars long suspecting what turned out to be the indisputable truth: They were destined to be terrible teammates.

When Bryant and Howard hung up on a pre-trade deadline call a year ago, the suspicions of a toxic mix were confirmed with a most uncomfortable conversation. They had different visions on the way Howard would fit into the Lakers, which promised to compound the gulf between them as people. They were going to win with the Lakers and tolerate each other; or lose and develop a deep disdain.

On his way out of the Garden, out of a humiliating 116-95 loss to the Boston Celtics, Bryant returned a clichéd question – "Are Dwight and you on the same page?" – without a clichéd response.

With a bemused face and a shrug, Bryant told Yahoo! Sports: "What page is there to be on? Defend. Rebound…"

He shrugged again.

"I mean, what else is on the page?"

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Nevertheless, Bryant reached out to Howard early on Thursday to defuse the drama, he told Yahoo! Sports. He fired off a text message to insist that a part of his interview with the great Boston sportswriter, Jackie MacMullan, had been misconstrued in the public eye. Bryant swore he wasn't calling out Howard about sitting three straight games with a shoulder injury, that he wasn't questioning his toughness.

"Listen, I really think people ran in the wrong direction with those quotes," Bryant told Y! Sports. "And I think that put Dwight on the defense, put him a little on edge. But that wasn't the intention, nor the purpose.

"I didn't say anything earth-shattering. I didn't say anything I haven't been saying all year.

"Honestly, I didn't take a run at him."

Truth be told, the Lakers are in deep, deep trouble – 3½ games back of the eighth spot in the Western Conference. They've lost Pau Gasol for several weeks and could be completely out of the playoff chase once he returns to the floor. Howard was out of sync in his return, fouling out in 28 minutes with little, if no, impact on the game.

More and more, it's become clear that Howard won't be his dominant self this season. The torn labrum could need surgery this summer, a league source said, and Howard couldn't even guarantee he'd feel strong enough to play in Charlotte on Friday night. From a herniated disk in his back to the torn labrum, from the pressures inside and outside the organization to get back on the floor, Howard has been reduced to a shell of himself.

In Howard's defense, the doctors had told him that he could expect to be out with back surgery into December – even January – and yet he had rehabilitated so well that he made opening night.

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Few players took the physical beating laid upon Howard in Orlando, the hard fouls, the wild swings, the shots delivered on the league's Goliath that were long tolerated. He did play through the back injury a year ago, until surgery was unavoidable.

"They can say what they want to say," Howard said softly at his locker. "None of these people are playing. None of these people have had injuries. They can say what they want about playing through pain or playing through injuries.

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