Laker News

Chris Paul upstaged the Lakers' superstar with 26 points and 11 rebounds in the New Orleans Hornets' 105-89 victory Wednesday night that snapped their season-high five-game losing streak.

"You won't be seeing too many dudes like that this season, getting into the paint like that," said Bryant, who led Los Angeles with 24 points. "I love his game."

Rasual Butler added 22 points and former Laker Jannero Pargo had 21 off the bench as coach Byron Scott beat the team he helped to NBA championships during the Lakers' "Showtime" era.

"Where our team has changed so much is we didn't let (the losing streak) bother us," Paul said. "Last year I think it would have gotten us down and we would have thought about it too much. But when you play 82 games in this league as fast as you lose them, you can win them just as quick."

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"It should be a lot worse, the way I came down on it," Bryant said. "I'm happy that I feel the way I feel right now. I don't know about Wednesday."

The Lakers return to action Wednesday night against the New Orleans Hornets.

Bryant scored 21 points before being injured early in the third period, with the Lakers leading 65-46. Indiana got as close as seven points late before the Lakers, led by Kwame Brown, outscored the Pacers 11-4 to finish the game.

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He still downplayed down the rivalry between the teams, whose locker rooms are some 30 feet apart.

"This is such a long season and we enjoy the matchups, as I'm sure they do. But that's where it stays. My theory on that is rivalries are made in the playoffs, not in the regular season," said Bryant, who scored 40 points in their earlier meeting.

"In the playoffs, that's when things kind of heat up. But this is something that the city wants to talk about, and as players we can't help but respond to that type of challenge."

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He made all nine shots from the floor and was 10-for-10 at the foul line in his highest-scoring game since an 81-point outburst against Toronto on Jan. 22 last season. He had 30 points in the third quarter, tying his own team record set during a 62-point effort against Dallas on Dec. 20.

"I felt great. I felt explosive," Bryant said. "It's just about trusting my knee and trusting my legs. And after tonight, I know I'm at that point right now where I feel like I know it's going to be there."

Coach Phil Jackson did something completely out of character when Bryant left the court for the final time: He gave the Lakers' star a high-five and hugged him.

"It's great to watch Kobe have a great night like that, but I thought our defense stepped up, too," Jackson said.

Jackson said Bryant, who led the league in scoring with a 35.4 average last season, looks as if he's almost fully back in form.

"It's a combination of things he did tonight," Jackson said. "He used his explosiveness, maybe not as dramatic as in the past, but there's still plenty of fire there."

With Bryant hitting from all over the court, the Jazz began fouling him almost every time he was even threatening to shoot.

Utah coach Jerry Sloan said he didn't think there was anything the Jazz could have done.

"He caught the ball and got on a roll; he just made whatever he caught," Sloan said. "Players like that, they get on a roll and I don't think there's much you can do.

"We had a guy in Milwaukee (Michael Redd last Saturday) score 57 on us, and he got 52. We're having a difficult time trying to guard that position."

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"We just didn't do a good job of executing," Bryant said after the Lakers set a franchise record with 37 3-point attempts and missed 26 of them. "Redd played extremely well. He made some difficult shots. They set good screens for him and he knocked them down."

The Bucks took a 41-39 lead on a short jumper by Dan Gadzuric with 5:14 left in the first half. They didn't trail again until Sasha Vujacic -- the last player off the Lakers' bench -- intercepted Andrew Bogut's pass and converted the turnover into a breakaway layup to cap a 27-13 run and give Los Angeles a 78-77 edge with 55 seconds left in the third.

Bryant went to the bench 14 seconds later with his fourth foul, and the Bucks capitalized with an 18-4 run that opened up a 95-82 lead with 7:34 to play. Redd scored Milwaukee's first 15 points of that rally. The backbreaker came with 9:32 left, when he converted a layup into a three-point play and sank another free throw after a technical foul called by referee Monty McCutcheon against Odom.

Bryant returned to the floor with 8:46 remaining and scored eight points before Odom's layup narrowed the gap to 97-92 with 4:20 left. The Bucks built their margin back up to nine on Redd's fifth 3-pointer of the game, but the Lakers clawed back within 107-102 on rookie Jordan Farmar's 3-pointer with 49 seconds to go.

Redd answered with a layup, and Luke Walton hit a 3 at the other end to slice Milwaukee's lead to 108-105 with 18 seconds left. Redd lost the ball on the ensuing inbounds play, but former Laker Ruben Patterson forced Bryant to miss a game-tying 3-point shot with 5 seconds on the clock -- turning into the Kobe-stopper he always claimed to be with Portland.

"That's so much over with now," Patterson said with a laugh. "I was so young then, and that was the hype every time me and Kobe played against each other. He's a great player. He was hitting 3s in the fourth quarter like they were free throws, so we knew he was going to take that shot at the end. I was just trying to make him take a deep 3 and contest it. I played tough D on him and made him take a tough shot."

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Lamar Odom scored 21 points, Kobe Bryant added 19 points and a season-high 10 assists, and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the New Jersey Nets 99-93 on Sunday night.

But the two combined to make 14 shots in 40 attempts. Their teammates were 23-of-42.

"That's a team victory," said Odom, who shot 6-for-16. "We hit open shots tonight."

Luke Walton shot 4-of-7 including 2-of-2 from 3-point range to make him 13-of-19 overall this season. Rookie Jordan Farmar was 4-of-8 including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc, and Smush Parker was 5-of-10 including 2-of-5 on 3-pointers.

"When Smush was in there, he gave us a great boost," said Bryant, who shot just 8-of-24. "And then the young fella (Farmar) came in and played extremely well, and Kwame (Brown) did, too.

"They're ready, they're stepping up and hitting shots. Luke's leading the league in 3-point shooting accuracy."

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"I told them they had nothing to be ashamed of except that rebound total when they look at it," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said.

Mehmet Okur also had a double-double for Utah with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Derek Fisher scored 13 against his former team, Gordan Giricek added 12 points and Matt Harpring scored 10.

Kwame Brown scored 15 and Luke Walton finished with 13 points for the Lakers.

Williams also had 10 assists and led the Jazz back after they fell behind by seven early in the fourth quarter.

"They're just playing extremely well," Bryant said.

Williams grabbed a loose ball after getting blocked by Smush Parker and made a 22-footer to put Utah ahead 107-104. Then after Odom converted a three-point play to tie it with 1:18 left, Williams hit a 3-pointer with a minute left.

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Thanks to Kobe Bryant.

Bryant scored 40 points, 10 in the final 5:38, to lead the Lakers to a 105-101 victory on Tuesday night.

"As players, it's just another game. But when the whole city gets involved with this atmosphere, we can't help but respond," Bryant said, alluding to the sellout crowd of 18,997 for what was a Lakers' home game against their neighbors from down the hall.

The 40 points were a season high for Bryant, who's been working his way back from offseason knee surgery.

He got the Lakers going again after they went scoreless over a span of almost seven minutes beginning in the final minute of the third quarter and extending into the fourth.

"I'm just setting the tone. I'm just coming out and been aggressive and reading the defense in the second half," Bryant said.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson was pleased to see Bryant, the NBA's top scorer last season, hitting his stride.

"The thing I looked at is that he had one turnover tonight," Jackson said. "I think the decisiveness is evident.

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"It's been nine years since I coached the Bulls," Jackson said. "And because it gets so familiar, I decided this would be the team I'd scout -- relieve my crack staff and take it on myself this time. It brought on a familiarity of the Chicago Bulls to me."

Andrew Bynum added 12 points and 13 rebounds for the Lakers before fouling out. Kobe Bryant scored 18 points, matching his lowest total in eight games since returning from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in July.

Last season's NBA scoring champ shot 5-for-14 after getting 31 points in Friday's 107-100 win against Toronto, but the Lakers still managed to win their third in a row and hand Chicago its fourth straight loss.

"Most people around the league would say there isn't another team that plays with the same intensity," Jackson said of the Bulls. "You know they're driven. They'll push you to the extreme and they'll wear you out because they work so hard. They're a hard-achieving team, and sometimes there's more froth than substance -- sort of like a latte. There's not much there. I didn't mean that to be an insult, but they have trouble scoring."

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Playing on four days' rest, Bryant had 31 points and 11 rebounds, and the Los Angeles Lakers held on to beat the last-place Toronto Raptors 107-100 Friday night, when he went over the 17,000-point mark.

"My leg feels good and I started getting some of that explosion," he said. "I was able to turn it up. Four days off helped a lot."

Bryant torched the Raptors for 81 points -- second-most in NBA history -- last January. This time, he had help. Luke Walton added 12 points, Smush Parker had 11 and Lamar Odom 10 in the Lakers' first game in four days.

"We can play much better than that," Odom said. "We could have easily lost this game, but we found a way to win."

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