Kobe Bryant ranks third in the NBA in scoring, so far, at 26.4 points per game. But the Lakers are 4-4, and are beginning to have the feel of a .500 team.

Are these concepts related?

Well, yes. In that the Lakers have managed to win four games … but have contrived to lose four.

It seems increasingly clear that Kobe needs to shoot less, not more, if the Lakers are to get over .500. And stay there.

So far, Kobe has some scary “other” stats that the average fan does not pay much attention to.

To wit:

–He is making only 43.3 percent of his field-goal attempts. No one in the top 10 in scoring is making fewer shots on a percentage basis. No one. And anyone who watches him launch off-balance and long-distance shots knows why.

–He is making only 18.9 percent of his three-point shots. He has never been particularly good at the three-ball (33.8 percent in his career), he just takes so many of them that we tend to remember the ones he drains.

–And the stat that is most alarming? No one in the NBA takes more shots than does Kobe Bean Bryant — 22.5 a game, so far.

Why is this a problem? Because the Lakers have two really good shooters in their starting lineup, and they should be getting more shots. They would be Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol, who are making 60.7 percent and 57.9 percent of their shots, respectively.

Yet those two guys are taking only a few more shots together (27.2 per game) than Kobe does (22.5) by himself. And the Bynum-Gasol total is probably skewed artificially high because Bynum didn’t play the first four games, and Gasol perhaps got more shots in his absence.

An ESPN columnist noted recently how Bynum barely got his first 20-20 — he was shy on the scoring side — because Kobe never gave him the ball down the stretch.

It must be conceded that Bynum and Gasol need someone to bring the ball. They are at a disadvantage there, because Kobe has the ball in his hands at all times. It also can be something of a chore getting the ball into position for the big men.

But the Lakers — well, Kobe — need to try harder.

Part of the problem here is the new coach, Mike Brown. He clearly is deferring to Kobe, and Kobe is taking advantage — even whole playing with a sore tendon his his right (shooting) wrist.

Remember that opening game? Against the Bulls? I do. I was up much of the night watching it, in Abu Dhabi, and Kobe was particularly bad in crunch time. Lakers fans are slow to grasp this, but his reputation as a stone-cold last-shot assassin is not supported by statistics. But like so many things Kobe, if he takes so many attempts, he is going to make a few, and we tend to remember and romanticize them.

My friend and former colleague, Mike Davis, also watched that game, and here is his analysis of the final seconds of what turned into a depressing defeat.

“I saw the Lakers’ last possession as an early test for Mike Brown – would he try to put his stamp on the team and assert some control over Kobe by actually calling a play? Or would he just do what Phil always did – give the ball to Kobe and let him ‘create’ something off the dribble? You saw what happened.

“Hopefully Brown will learn quickly that in that situation, Kobe creates only for himself, never for a teammate. There had to be at least a couple other Lakers open on that play, since four Bulls converged on Kobe … but Kobe almost never gives up the rock in that situation, and especially on this team, which has even fewer threats than other recent Lakers teams. Yeah, Gasol is still playing like his confidence has been shattered … and that leaves no one in whom Kobe would have any faith at all that he could hit a game-winning shot.

“But I thought the previous Lakers possession was the key one. The Bulls played it exactly right, and the Lakers fell right into the trap. There were only 20 secs left; the Lakers were up one, didn’t have to shoot, all they had to do was keep possession and draw a foul – assuming they could get the ball in Kobe’s hands, since he appears to be the only guy the Lakers can put on the floor who’s capable of hitting two FTs at the end of a game.

“So the percentage play for the Bulls would have been to deny Kobe the ball, make someone else catch it and then foul that guy. Instead, the Bulls let Kobe catch that inbounds pass — exactly where they wanted him to catch it, close to midcourt and coming back to the ball being inbounded from the sideline. They easily funnel him back toward the corner where the sideline and midcourt line intersect,  quickly trap him at midcourt with a double team … and Kobe panics.

“Instead of  doing something that might have drawn a foul or at worst calling timeout, he throws a soft pass over the double team to the equally soft and panicky Gasol, who fails to move quickly enough, if at all, toward the ball to receive the pass, and Deng picks it off, setting up Chicago’s final, winning possession.”

Kobe doesn’t need to stop taking more shots than anyone else. That would be unnatural; he is not wired that way. But he does need to give up another 3-4 times a game — to Bynum and Gasol, in particular.

It could mean the difference between the playoffs and the lottery.