"Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant is on a scoring tear and his injured right wrist is starting to heal.

"The wrist's feeling stronger," Bryant said Friday after scoring 42 points in the Lakers' 97-92 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. "I'm feeling stronger, I'm feeling more comfortable. ... It's getting a lot better."

Bryant suffered a tear of the lunotriquetral ligament in his right (shooting) wrist during the preseason. The injury showed at times -- most notably when he coughed up eight turnovers in a season-opening loss to Chicago and later when he shot just 6-for-28 against Denver -- but Bryant seems to have the ailment in check based on his recent performances.

It was Bryant's third straight 40-point game, marking the first time since March 2007 when Bryant has scored 40-plus in three consecutive games. The 16-year veteran now has 110 40-point games in his career, placing him third all-time behind only Wilt Chamberlain (271) and Michael Jordan (173).

"It's just motivation," Bryant said. "Nobody wants to hear about a bad wrist as being the reason why I had a bad game; you saw that a couple weeks ago [against Denver]. Nobody wants to hear excuses, so I got to go out there and do what I do.""