LOS ANGELES – The Lakers’ smiley-face season turned into its first furrowed brow Sunday night when emerging 20-year-old center Andrew Bynum sprained his left knee and couldn’t put any weight on the leg until later. Despite a Memphis rally after Bynum’s third-quarter injury, the Lakers got the victory because of Kobe Bryant’s 37 points.
Bynum said afterward of his injury: “Nothing serious.” But he’ll have an MRI exam Monday morning to see if he’s right. He was able to walk out of Staples Center without the crutches he had been given.
Luke Walton and Derek Fisher had key steals around the 3:00 mark of the fourth to get points at the other end from Fisher and Lamar Odom. That gave the Lakers the lead back until Memphis’ Juan Carlos Navarro – known as “La Bomba” because of his 3-point shooting — was left alone for a 3-pointer with 2:27 left and a 94-93 Memphis lead.
But Bryant carried the Lakers home, with help from a Kwame Brown steal and one Brown tie-breaking free throw down the stretch. Memphis guard Kyle Lowry jumped into Brown — but no foul was called — and missed a layup on Memphis’ final possession before Hakim Warrick missed a desperation 3-pointer. It was Lakers’ 16th victory in 19 outings and sixth consecutive.
DID YOU SEE THAT?
Bynum and Walton hit back-to-back shots with their left hands in the first quarter.
NO KOBE-DAR
Bryant was making his hissing sound to call for the ball midway through the third quarter, but Walton ignored him and set up Brown in the paint (he was fouled and missed both foul shots); Bryant gave Walton the thumbs-up sign to show his approval at the snub … then nailed a 3-pointer on the Lakers’ next possession.
HEIST THWARTED
After the ball bounded into the stands before a timeout with 2:39 left in the third, a female fan tucked the ball under her shirt in hopes of keeping it. Lakers locker-room attendant Carlos Maples had to go ask her for the ball back.
NEXT
Lakers at Seattle, 7 p.m. Monday, KCAL/9, KLAC/570
The Lakers are still playing half their potential, it could be more potent when those young talent started to feel the game and gain experience. At this very moment they still lack the capacity to play good on team that play hard and physical game like that of the Celtics and Spurs. They must learn to play bigtime banging to become champion again.
the last play of the game (the no-call foul) was total BS!!
let the players play?? that is messed up. how can the refs not affect the outcome of the game, when the no-call on the obvious foul completely affects the game!!!
BS!!!!
Brown clearly hit Lowry’s arm.
Laker’s got lucky again.
Great work as usual, Kevin.
Could you ask either player what Kobe said to Kwame at the free throw lane at the end of the game? I saw them both talking and then smiling on camera before Kwame made the first free throw. I imagine that Kobe was keeping Kwame loose, but I can’t be sure.
Kobe could have told Kwame… the world is in your shoulder and the fate of humanity is in your freethrow or something like that. ha ha ha
Nice to know that kobe is inspiring his team mates more, a leadership task that he should provide being the heart of the team.
From the game story (remember that not all the good stuff gets into the blog, so the Web stories need to be read, too!) …
Brown stepped to the foul line at 37.9 percent on the season, but he laughed after Bryant said to him: “I’m probably going to bail your (butt) out anyway, so go shoot ‘em with confidence.”