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Kobe Helps Lakers Hold On Against 76ers
01.01.11
Kobe Bryant slams home two over Andres Nocioni.
In a game the Lakers never trailed, they also were never able to put away the resilient Philadelphia 76ers, and needed some late points by Kobe Bryant to get a 102-98 win at Staples Center on New Year’s Eve.
Bryant, who was held to a season-low nine points in a win in Philadelphia earlier this month, scored a game-high 33 points, including the tiebreaking jumper with just over 90 seconds left, as the Lakers hung on to get the victory. The win snapped a two-game home losing streak for the Lakers.
The Sixers did have chances to win the game at the end, but UCLA-product Jrue Holiday missed a three-pointer late, and guard Lou Williams followed with the same with four seconds left. Bryant then hit two free throws to seal the victory.
Pau Gasol had 20 points and eight rebounds, bouncing back from some recent sub-part scoring games. Lamar Odom had 18 points and seven rebounds off the bench, and Andrew Bynum scored eight points and grabbed a season-high 15 rebounds.
The Lakers led the game the entire way, and by as many as 12 at one point, but the young Philadelphia squad kept hanging around. They trailed 52-44 at halftime, and 82-73 after three quarters, but managed to fight back and tie the game at 98 with just over a minute left. They never did score again however, as Bryant scored the game’s final four points for the world champs.
For the second straight game, the Lakers shot over 50% from the field, hitting 42-82 (51.2%) against Philadelphia. The also dominated on the glass, 45-35, including 11 at the offensive end. However, they did only hit 4-14 (28.6%) from beyond the arc, as they continue to struggle from long range in recent games.
The Sixers, who played without Andre Iguodala for the third straight game, were led by Holiday’s 19 points and 11 assists. Off the bench, Lou Williams scored 18, and Thaddeus Young had 14. In fact, the 76ers’ bench scored 44 of the team’s 98 points.
The Lakers are in the middle of a three-game homestand that will continue on Sunday against the Memphis Grizzlies, who have already beaten the Lakers once this season, 98-96 back on November 13th at the FedEx Forum.
The Lakers will play six of their next eight games at home, with only two of the games against teams with winning records (New Orleans and New York). With the schedule getting increasingly harder in the middle of the month, the Lakers need to take advantage and get wins against the weaker teams to climb back closer to the top spot in the Western Conference.
Lakers Lay Giant Egg Against Heat
12.27.10
Lamar Odom slams home two against Heat.
In one of the most-forgettable Christmas Day games the Lakers have played, the Miami Heat flexed their muscle, and embarrassed the champs 96-80 at Staples Center, in front a huge national television audience.
After the game got off to a good start for the Lakers with an 8-4 lead, it fell apart just that quick. LeBron James punished the the Laker defense all game long, got Ron Artest to commit two silly fouls early, and had his way with every other defender thrown at him. James finished the game with a triple-double, scoring a game-high 27 points, with 11 rebounds, and 10 assists, hitting 5-6 from the three-point line.
Chris Bosh, who has had his troubles against the Lakers in the past as a member of the Toronto Raptors, found little resistance up front from Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, or Andrew Bynum on his way to 24 points and a game-high 13 rebounds, including hitting 11-17 from the floor.
There’s really nothing positive the Lakers can take from a second-straight beat-down at home. With both the Lakers and the Heat looking for a signature win to start the season, it was the the visitors from Miami who would get the job done on this day. They dominated every statistical category, including outrebounding a much bigger Laker front line 44-43. The Lakers shot a paltry 40.5% from the floor, and just 6-19 (31.6%) from the three-point line.
Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 17 points, six rebounds, and seven assists, but he was frustrated all game long by his teammates’ struggles as well as the officiating. After getting kicked out of Tuesday’s game against Milwaukee with two technical fouls, he picked up another one on Saturday arguing with referees over non-calls.
Pau Gasol also had 17 points to go along with eight rebounds, but was a non-factor most of the game. Lamar Odom had 14 points and nine rebounds, and Shannon Brown scored 10 off the bench. No other Laker scored more than eight points.
The Heat held the Lakers to a season-low 14 points in the first quarter, and led 45-36 at the half. After the Lakers got as close as 51-45, the Heat never let them get that close again. Every time the Lakers made any run at the game, James continued to bury the them with long range daggers. And if it wasn’t James hitting shots from deep, it was Mario Chalmers, who hit 3-9 from beyond the arc , en route to 13 points off the bench.
About the only bright spot for the Lakers was that Dwyane Wade had a sub-par game, scoring just 18 points on 6-17 from the floor. But he was hardly needed on this day, and he did an admirable job defensively against Bryant.
For the first time in Los Angeles Lakers’ history, the team suffered back-to-back home losses of 16 points or more, and only averaged a miserable 79.5 points in the process.
It doesn’t get any easier for the Lakers this week. Their next game is Tuesday in San Antonio against the Spurs, who have the best record in basketball at 26-4. They then play a back-to-back game in New Orleans on Wednesday against the Hornets. And they have had a notoriously hard time winning in New Orleans over the years, no matter how good the Hornets are.
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