DALLAS – Kobe Bryant kept coming and coming, but he didn’t get much help. And it’s hard to beat an elite Western Conference team without much help.

The Mavericks used their various offensive weapons down the stretch to hold off Bryant on Friday night. Bryant had 40 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.

Dallas point guard Devin Harris shook off an early injury to his left ankle to orchestrate the Mavericks down the stretch. Harris crashed in for a 3-point play with 58.2 seconds left and then set up the capper: a Jason Terry 3-point shot with 27.8 seconds left.

Jordan Farmar had 18 points for the Lakers, who hardly used any of Bryant’s fellow starters in the fourth quarter. Lamar Odom had four points in 32 minutes.

QUOTABLE

Bryant was apparently stuck in the far corner with the shot clock at seven, but even from all the way at the other end of the court and from the other side, Mavs coach Avery Johnson could sense it and yelled: “He’s gonna shoot it! He’s gonna shoot it!” Bryant did and made it.

QUESTIONABLE

When Lakers coach Phil Jackson pulled Odom with 5:01 left in the third quarter, Jackson had questions for Odom as he approached the bench – presumably along the lines of why Odom had so ineffective on offense.

DOWN, NOT OUT

Bryant went down with 2:35 left in the third after Dallas’ Trenton Hassell landed on Bryant’s right ankle. Bryant then went down in a heap just seven seconds later when Hassell landed on Bryant’s left leg. Neither time did Bryant leave the game.

NEXT

Cleveland at Lakers, 12:30 p.m. Sunday, KABC/7, KLAC/570

This entry was posted on Friday, January 25th, 2008 at 8:22 pm and is filed under 2007-08, Game reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.