Ok, are we seeing the ghost again?

As sick as Kobe Bryant felt and acted in the waning moments before tip-off, it didn't look like he'd be much use to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Coach Phil Jackson knew better, because he'd gone through this before with another superstar -- Michael Jordan.

Bryant scored 16 of his 37 points in the fourth quarter despite a viral upper respiratory infection, Andrew Bynum had 25 points and a career-high 17 rebounds, and the Lakers beat the Milwaukee Bucks 110-105 Friday night for their season-high fifth straight victory.

"I got a couple of reports before the game about his condition and where he was at," Jackson said. "He had some nausea and some headaches and dizziness. But he said he's be ready to play, and he was."

Bryant's under-the-weather performance wasn't quite as over-the-top or as significant as Jordan's was in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA finals against the Utah Jazz, when the flu-ridden Chicago Bulls guard got out of a sick bed to shoot 13-for-27 and score 38 points in 44 minutes to lead his team to a 90-88 win. But it was impressive nonetheless.

"Michael did a lot of throwing up and he had to get quite a few IVs -- one of them just to get on the floor -- and he was up all night," Jackson recalled. "Kobe had a situation like that in Sacramento in the playoffs and played in that ballgame. So he's played through this type of thing before."

Bryant shot 12-for-25 in 37 minutes and made five 3-pointers, leaving him one trey shy of 1,000 for his career. He also had seven assists and five rebounds and converted all eight free throws.

Bryant played the entire first quarter, scoring his first 16 points during the final 4:34 of the period before taking a breather early in the second. His first three baskets came on 3-point shots during a 62-second span, and he capped that scoring binge by flying under the basket past 7-foot center Andrew Bogut and making a reverse layup.

Bryant wore a towel over his head during every rest period on the bench to keep the chill from the refrigerated hockey rink underneath the court at a minimum -- while his healthy teammates managed to maintain their slim lead though the rest of the first half.

"Early in the ballgame I was feeling real weak and I was trying to find a rhythm, but I was able to muscle through it," said Bryant, who was constantly coughing into his hand while speaking with reporters. "I was just trying to focus on the execution and find little things to motivate me. We hadn't beaten them in a couple of years, and we let that last game at their place get away, so that was enough motivation for me to come out and perform."