Celtics beat Lakers 112-111

After a hard game, the Celtics conclude a successful 3-and-1 road trip with a 112-to-111 victory over Los Angeles Lakers.

The records will say that Paul Pierce completed one of the best months of his career, scoring 39 points, including the deciding foul shot with 3-point-two seconds remaining.

Indeed, Pierce was fouled by Kobe Bryant, and made one foul shot to complete the scoring. He averaged 33-point-5 points in eleven games this month.

We must notice that Bryant—who scored 40 points but was held to three in the final period—missed as time expired.

Ryan Gomes added a career-high 19 points and 12 rebounds for Boston, and Delonte West had 19 points and a career-best ten assists. Wally Szczerbiak added 16 points. Brian Cook scored 19 for the Lakers.

East beat West in All-Star Game

Kobe Bryant took part of the All-Star Game once again, but let's face it: this time was different. Everybody still wants to see the 81-point man crushing the score records and facing Shaquille O'Neal. But this two things didn't appear in the expected level. East beated the West Conference by 122-120 and the figures were the Pistons' four and LeBron James. Maybe next time.

Hawks beat Lakers

Hawks visited Lakers and got a 114-110 victory, despite Bryant's effort. Atlanta`s Josh Smith tied career-bests with 21 points and 15 rebounds on Wednesday night.

What's more, Josh Childress added 21 points off the bench and Joe Johnson compiled 20 points and a personal-best 15 assists for the Hawks, who won for only the fifth time away from home this season.

Now the Lakers have to spend six days thinking about their loss to the Atlanta Hawks, who hadn't beaten a Western Conference team on the road in more than a year.

In fact, Kobe Bryant finished with 39 points but uncharacteristically missed 4 of 10 free throws in the fourth quarter. Josh Smith led the Hawks with 21 points and 15 rebounds, and Joe Johnson had a monstrous 20-point, 15-assist game.

To make it clear, it was a disastrous game for the Lakers, who led by 15 points in the first quarter and appeared on the way to an easy night. They went just 6 of 15 from the line in the fourth quarter, though, and the Hawks went 27 of 31 for the game.

The Lakers had a chance to tie in the final minute as Bryant stole a Royal Ivey pass along the sideline and fed ahead to Smush Parker. However Parker blew the dunk with Smith closing fast from behind.

It's important to notice that Bryant and Parker ended up falling on top of each other, and the Lakers couldn't grab the loose ball. At the other end, Johnson followed Ivey's missed shot all alone with 22.7 seconds left. Bryant missed a 3-point attempt with 15.9 seconds left.

Bryant was the hero in Lakers victory

Kobe Bryant was 6-for-20 from the field and was outscored by Utah guard Devon Brown, but his 23 points were enough to help the Lakers get a victory over the Jazz 94-88 on Monday night.

Bryant, whose league-leading scoring average dropped from 35.2 to 34.9, averaged 43.4 points in January - including a franchise-record 81-point effort against Toronto and a streak of 62 consecutive free throws made.

''I really don't care about the scoring title. I could care less,'' Bryant said. ''I don't care about shooting the ball or anything. I mean, if I need to score 35 or 40 points, or whatever it is, I do it to win the game. If I don't need to, then I don't. We needed this win, and that is what we were able to do.''

Grizzlies beat Lakers

It looked like a Lakers' victory, but Pau Gasol scored four of his 31 points in the final 53 seconds, Eddie Jones had 25 points, and the Memphis Grizzlies kept Kobe Bryant in check en route to a 100-99 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night at Staples Center. Chucky Atkins had 18 scorings for the Grizzlies, who ended a season-worst five-game losing streak and a six-match road skid. Memphis has won three of its last four games against the Lakers in Los Angeles, after losing the first 18.

Kobe Bryant scored 12 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter and Smush Parker added 20 for the Lakers. Bryant, who came in averaging a league-leading 35.4 points, missed 12 of his first 17 shots and finished 10-for-28 from the field.

It's important to notice that Bryant made a 3-pointer that triggered a run of eight consecutive points by the nine-time All-Star and gave the Lakers an 86-77 lead with 7:48 to play. But Jones' 3-pointer capped a 9-2 spurt and got Memphis within 90-89 with 3:53 remaining.

Fans could see that Bryant gave the Lakers some breathing room with a 14-footer, Kwame Brown converted an offensive rebound of Lamar Odom's long miss into a 3-point play and Bryant drained a 20-footer for a 99-95 lead with 1:07 left. But the Grizzlies wouldn't quit.

Actually, Brown tied a season high with 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds before fouling out with 53 seconds to go. And Gasol sank both free throws, then blocked a shot by Odom at the other end and tied the score at 99 on a layup with 29 seconds left. But he missed a free throw attempting to complete a three-point play.

It is true that Brian Cook missed a 16-footer for the Lakers and Atkins made one of two free throws for a one-point lead with 3 seconds on the clock. Devean George rebounded the ball on Atkins' second attempt, and the Lakers had a chance to pull out the win. But Bryant was closely guarded by Jones and missed a long jumper he got off after the final buzzer.

Kobe Bryant scores 32 in Lakers victory over Rockets

At first, Kobe Bryant was stunned to find so many big gaps in the Rockets' defense. Once the shock wore off, Bryant took advantage, scoring 32 points and dishing out a season-high nine assists as the Lakers snapped a four-match losing streak with an 89-78 victory Wednesday night.

"I started coming off the pick and roll and I was so wide open," noticed Bryant, who went 13-for-29 from the field. "It really threw me off at first. It's been two months since I've been that wide open."

And when Bryant wasn't burning the Rockets, Brian Cook was. In fact, Cook added 27 points and 10 rebounds one night after scoring a season-high 28 in the Lakers' 102-87 loss at Dallas.
"A lot of other teams only focus on Kobe," Cook noticed. "I only hang around on the weak side and nights like tonight, Kobe gives it up."

Is important to notice that Rafer Alston made 16 and Yao Ming added 14 points and 13 rebounds for the Rockets, who had a four-match winning streak snapped.

"We got too comfortable with ourselves with the winning streak," McGrady noticed. "It's really disappointing to come home and have an outing like this, myself included."

Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy ripped his team's effort after the match. He noticed the Rockets were equally lackadaisical in their shootaround.

"How little we put in the match, from the start of the day to the end of the match, was totally uninspiring," Van Gundy noticed. "We went through the motions, but didn't even fake it really well."

The match drew 18,291 fans - a season high at the Toyota Center - but those hoping to see a 1-on-1 duel between Bryant and All-Star Tracy McGrady left disappointed.