Lakers 123, Warriors 113
December 9th, 2007, 9:04 pm · Post a Comment · posted by KEVIN DING, OCREGISTER.COM
LOS ANGELES – Kobe Bryant’s belief is that if he keeps shooting ‘em, he’ll start making ‘em.
Despite Baron Davis’ best effort, that was the case Sunday night in the Lakers’ victory over Golden State at Staples Center.
Davis had 17 points in the first half on 6-of-12 shooting but seemed to weaken under the responsibility of guarding Bryant, who had just eight first-half points on 3-of-13 shooting.
In the second half, Bryant had 20 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Davis had three points on 1-of-5 shooting and drew a technical foul out of frustration.
Bryant re-entered the game with 8:45 to play and the Lakers’ lead down to 99-95. After Jordan Farmar’s turnover wasted a possession, Bryant demanded the ball and got it. He blew past Davis and hit a runner for a 101-95 lead. Bryant penetrated again next time down, passed to Ronny Turiaf, who moved the ball to Vladimir Radmanovic for a 3-pointer and a 104-95 lead.
Turiaf played so well in the fourth that he kept Andrew Bynum on the bench for half the period and stuck tying his career-high of 20 points.
QUOTABLE
Asked about the Lakers’ Hardwood Classics uniforms from the 1987-88 season – which just offer a reminder that the number on the gold jerseys should’ve stayed purple instead of white, as they are now — Lamar Odom said: “I’m into it.”
ROUGH CUT
Derek Fisher cut his finger while committing a reach-in foul on Al Harrington 5.6 seconds before halftime. Briefly coming over the Staples public-address system was the U2 song, “Sunday Bloody Sunday.”
WALTON’S VOW
Luke Walton didn’t play because of his sprained right ankle but insisted he’d be back Thursday night against San Antonio.
NEXT
San Antonio at Lakers, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, TNT, KLAC/570
