Bryant lead stunning win over the Hawks

Kobe Bryant was the main atraction of the game. The crowd made it clear. And the applause for him continued after the game - in the Hawks' locker room. Bryant, mostly quiet through three quarters, scored nine straight fourth-quarter points to lead Los Angeles to a 90-83 win over Atlanta on Monday night. "You've got to give it to him," said Atlanta's Joe Johnson, who matched Bryant's 27 points but couldn't equal his fourth-quarter impact.

"I have to say that he made some great shots down the stretch, and I was draped all over him for some of them," Johnson honestly admitted.

Indeed, eleven of Bryant's 27 points came in the final period.

"He's a very good player; he's one of the best players who has played our game," said Atlanta coach Mike Woodson. "When he makes a 27-footer, falling away in the corner, you've got to come back on the other end and execute your offence."

As we know, the Hawks were only 4-of-9 from the free throw line in the final part.

And Kobe Bryant said he didn't look at the game as a scoring contest with Joe Johnson.

"To me individually it doesn't mean much at this stage of my career; I've played in so many of those individual battles," Bryant stated. "It's more just, 'What can I do to help us win the match?'

"Maybe some years ago I would have tried to end up with 25 points in the fourth quarter. Now it's not what's important. Once I got on a roll, saw they were double and triple-teaming, I was able to use myself as a decoy."

Furthermore, we must mention that Smush Parker hit a three-pointer after Bryant's nine straight points, and Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom combined for 28 rebounds.

"I think it's a big difference in our team, and that's the understanding of when enough is enough," Lakers coach Phil Jackson admitted. "And when they started throwing extra bodies at people, there was open opportunities for other players."

Kobe wagged his index finger at Atlanta fans after his fourth straight jumper in his hot streak, which left the Lakers with a 77-71 lead. In fact, Bryant didn't need to tease; it seemed most of the 19,600 fans in Atlanta's sixth sellout of the season were cheering for him, anyway.

We must remember that the Lakers, who beat Atlanta 106-95 at home on Dec. 8, completed their first season sweep of the Hawks since the 1999-00 season. Even in recent seasons, when the Hawks bottomed out with 13-and 26-triumph totals, the Lakers managed no better than a split of the two encounters.

ACtually Jackson announced before the game: "This game is a little space in time. I'm always concerned about Atlanta. We don't play well here."

The Lakers didn't play their best early but still led almost from the start. Smith opened the game with a reverse jam - his first of four flashy slam dunks in the match - but the Lakers quickly pulled even on a tip by Bynum and never again trailed.

Kobe Bryant was held to nine points on 3-for-8 shooting in the first part, but the Lakers led 40-31 as Johnson was only 4-for-13 from the field for 10 points.

Los Angeles Lakers, who held a big lead of 11 points late in the first half, led 55-45 in the third quarter before the Hawks responded to that with eight straight points, including a three-pointer by Josh Childress.

And Kobe Bryant hit a three late in the quarter as the Lakers led 62-57 entering the final period. A really good move that decided the match.

Grizzlies were 10 points better

In an unexpected result, Mike Miller scored 14 of his 25 points during a 46-point third quarter Tuesday as the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 128-118.

This loss snapped a four-game winning streak for the Lakers team, which was coming off a 101-98 victory over the Dallas Mavericks, who have the league's best record. And the Grizzlies came into Tuesday's game with the NBA's worst percentage.

In fact, those 46 points were the most the Grizzlies have ever scored in a quarter. Memphis outscored the Lakers by 24 points over the 12 minutes.

Spanish star Pau Gasol also tallied 25 points, leading seven Grizzlies in double figures. Gasol also had 13 rebounds.

As for our star, Kobe Bryant had 25 points for the Lakers, who had a four-game winning streak end.

Lakers boss Phil Jackson had warned his squad not to let down against the lowly Grizzlies, who have a rejuvenated offense and are 3-3 under interim coach Tony Barone.

"I think that we outplay the better teams right now, but we're getting outplayed by the teams that aren't as good," Lakers forward Luke Walton said. "Sometimes, we end up winning at the end, but this is too good of a league and too long of a season to get a high playoff seed if we keep playing like that."

Parker leads Lakers victory

It was an interesting thing to see on the court. Parker, a former Piston, helped the Lakers clearly defeat the Orlando Magic 106-93 Wednesday night. The player scored a season-high 20 -- 18 in the third quarter -- and Bryant had 27 points and seven assists to complete the perfect game .

We must mention that the Lakers picked up their third victory on a tough six-game road swing that ends at Charlotte on Friday. Furthermore, Andrew Bynum also had 13 points in 13 minutes against Orlando Magic.

"It's just that my team can't be giving the Smush Parkers of the league quarters like that," Magic coach Brian Hill admitted. "If it's Kobe it's different."

We can apreciate that former Piston Grant Hill had 20 points for Orlando, which has lost three straight. Also Jameer Nelson added 15 points and seven assists, and Dwight Howard had 12 points and eight rebounds.

It's not so strange to see that after scoring 15 in the first half, Bryant virtually disappeared in the third quarter. In fact, he hit three free throws but missed all three field-goal attempts and didn't make a second-half shot from the field until a 3-pointer 1:17 into the last quarter.

And fans must admit that Los Angeles didn't need him. Parker scored nine during a 14-3 run in the third quarter, and Brian Cook made a 3-pointer just before the period ended to give Los Angeles a 79-73 lead.

"I think that we just ran our offense," Parker expressed. "We executed our offense and I got open looks."

Bulls tamed Bryant to beat Lakers

Lakers fall to Chicago Bulls, and there are many conclusions after the match. The latest triumph by the Bulls was different from their recent victories.

as we saw, Chicago spent the previous three weeks picking on teams with losing records, most from the Eastern Conference, but they took out one of the best in the West on Tuesday, staring the talented Kobe Bryant and his team in a 94-89 win.

“It’s a great feeling to get a win against a team like that,” Chicago’s Ben Gordon said after the Bulls’ 12th win in 13 clashes.

We must consider that Luol Deng scored 23 points and tied a season-high with 12 rebounds for the Chicago Bulls.

It's fair to mention that Gordon hit two free throws to close out the win with 10.9 seconds left, after Smush Parker cut the Bulls’ lead to three with a foul shot and a dunk in the final 40 seconds. In fact, Deng hit 9 of 16 shots, and Gordon finished with 22 points as Chicago won its fifth straight.

Now, Kobe Bryant was a non-factor after scoring a combined 98 in the previous two games. He was content to defer and finished with 19 points on 6-of-19 shooting before fouling out for the first time since Dec. 1, 2005, in the final minute.

“I think that their defense had a lot to do with it,” Bryant said. “They made me work for positions. They fronted me in the post, and they just did an amazing job.”

Impressive performance against Houston Rockets

Kobe Bryant proved that he is at the top of his career as he scored 53 points in 54 minutes. This way, the Lakers pulled out a 112-101 double-overtime victory over the Houston Rockets on Friday night.

Los Angeles Lakers started with a nightmarish 10-point first quarter and finished both regulation and the first overtime with Bryant missing potential winning jumpers.

However, Kobe Bryant opened the second overtime still with the hops to shimmy-shake Yao Ming then execute a twisting dunk.

In fact, the Lakers' star scored seven points to Houston's two in the second overtime. And when the Rockets missed its final shot, it was Bryant soaring above everyone to own the rebound.

"We really had to go to Kobe tonight to get accomplished what we had to do to get a win," said Lakers boss Phil Jackson, who as early as the start of the second quarter moved Bryant to the scoring wing spot and ditched the triangle offense before halftime to run repeated pick-and-rolls for Kobe.

And Bryant expressed: "That confirmed for me that my legs are back to be able to dunk like that in the second overtime. You're happy but tired after a game like that. It might be funny, but even when we were down 20, I felt the game was ours."

It's important to notice that Bryant's efforts more than offset the best effort of Yao, who had 35 points, 15 rebounds and a career-high eight blocks in 49 minutes.

However, Yao Ming saw his last shot of the game in the second overtime cleanly blocked by Lakers center Kwame Brown.

The Rockets definitely tired after halftime, when they led by 18 points. They had played to the wire in Oakland the night before, losing on a Baron Davis three-pointer with 1.2 seconds left against Golden State.

The chinese player has been notorious for his poor conditioning in his career, but has improved it.

Both Yao and Bryant found the strength to hit key shots late in the first overtime. However, whereas Yao ruled the game right from the start - blocking Vladimir Radmanovic's layup just moments after tipoff - Bryant had the greater perseverance.

"At some point," Jackson admitted, "he's going to find a way."

We must consider that Bryant shot 17 of 38 from the field, 5 of 8 from three-point range and 14 of 16 from the foul line. He also had 10 rebounds, eight assists and five turnovers. It was awesome.

Kobe's ankle makes everybody sad

Los Angeles Lakers star guard Kobe Bryant sat out Friday night's 106-95 triumph over the Atlanta Hawks with a sprained right ankle.

As we know, Kobe Bryant suffered the injury in Monday night's 101-87 victory over the Indiana Pacers. He played through the injury Wednesday night, when the Lakers fell to the Hornets, 105-89.

Now Lakers must learn to play and win without their most important player.

It's important to consider that Bryant is averaging 25.9 points per game this season.

Kobe netted 52 to beat Jazz

Kobe Bryant had a very effective performance, as he scored a season-high 52 points, including 30 in the third quarter. With this help, Lakers beat the Utah Jazz 132-102 Thursday.

It's important to notice that the 30-point quarter tied Bryant's own Lakers record set last season when he finished with 81 points against Toronto. George Gervin had 33 in a quarter for San Antonio in 1978.

Kobe Bryant topped the 50-point plateau for the 12th time in his career and finished 19-of-26 from the floor and 12-of-15 from the line in his highest scoring match since he had 81 against the Raptors on 22 January last season.

The talented player led the Los Angeles Lakers against the first place Utah Jazz on Thursday night.

We must consider that Bryant got Los Angeles going in the first quarter. He moved inside on Deron Williams and went underneath the basket to get loose, then put his hand out and laid the ball in for two points.

What's more, the Lakers were trailing by two later in the quarter when Smush Parker tried to feed Bryant. Ronnie Brewer picked off the pass, ran the length of the court and slammed the ball in to put Utah Jazz up 21-17.

Los Angeles Lakers were back up two in the second quarter when the Jazz showed how they moved to the top of the standings. They got rebound after rebound before Matt Harpring finally found Carlos Boozer who slammed it down to tie things at 36.

And Utah just could not keep control. Parker stole the ball from Andrei Kirilenko, took it down court and underhanded it to Bryant, who went in at Kirilenko and sank an up and under lay up off of the glass to give his team a 10 point lead.

We must remember that time was ticking down in the quarter when Luke Walton handed Bryant the ball. Bryant ran downcourt, called for a pick and when he got it he went hard to the basket, dunking through Boozer and Andrei Kirilenko.

And that was not it. Bryant scored 12 second-quarter points and was just getting started.

He got things going in the second half. Los Angeles moved the ball around until Lamar Odom found Bryant in the paint. He again went to the rim and emphatically slammed the ball down.

Bryant kept putting on a show for the hometown fans. He put on a dribbling exhibition before hitting a jump shot over Kirilenko to make it 69-56 Lakers.

Bryant didn't even bother putting the rubber ball on the floor three minutes later when he simply pulled up and hit a three pointer, giving Los Angeles a 19 point lead.

Bryant hit the last of his 30 points in the third quarter with just over a minute left. He made room between himself and Gordan Giricek before pulling up and smoothly sinking the long jumper.

Finally, Kobe Bryant made all nine of his shots in the third quarter to set a Lakers record that he had set last season. He finished with 52 as Los Angeles ran all over the Utah Jazz 132-102.