Bryant leads Lakers past reeling Wolves
March 20, 2010
LOS ANGELES (AP)—Kobe Bryant(notes) had 22 points and a season-high 13 assists,leading the Los Angeles Lakers to a 104-96 victory over Minnesota on Fridaynight and sending the Timberwolves to their 12th straight loss.
Lamar Odom(notes) scored 11 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter, and Pau Gasol(notes)added 17 points and 14 rebounds to help the Lakers win their sixth in a row,following their first three-game skid since obtaining Gasol during the 2007-08season.
The defending NBA champions beat the Timberwolves for the 10th straight timedespite losing injury-plagued center Andrew Bynum(notes), who strained his leftAchilles’ tendon early in the third quarter. He had 11 points and five rebounds.
Bryant shot 4 for 11 from the field and had seven assists in the firstquarter, after averaging just 4.9 through his first 63 games. The Lakers havehad only two other double-digit assist performances by an individual this season— both by the 2008 MVP.
The Lakers have won 18 of the last 19 games in which Bryant has had fewerthan 20 field-goal attempts. The only blemish was 105-85 loss at San Antonio inwhich he took a season-low 10 shots and scored 16 points. He has put up 20 ormore shots in 14 of their last 15 defeats—and 30 or more in five of them.
Jonny Flynn(notes) scored 20 points for the Timberwolves, who have lost 18 of 19.Kevin Love(notes) added 19 points and 11 assists.
Bryant had an unusually quiet first half with 11 points—eight of them onfree throws—and took only three shots from the field in more than 15 minuteson the floor. His only field goal of the half was a 3-pointer with 2:14 left inthe second quarter.
With the two-time NBA scoring champ orchestrating the offense early oninstead of concentrating on scoring, the Lakers opened up a 13-point lead latein the opening quarter and led 59-49 at halftime. The Timberwolves opened thethird with a 17-7 run, tying it at 68 on Darko Milicic’s(notes) 23-footer with 4:49left in the quarter.
After a Lakers timeout, Bryant intercepted Corey Brewer’s(notes) pass and fed Gasolfor a dunk that put Los Angeles ahead to stay. They pulled out to a 10-pointlead by the end of the third and took their biggest lead, 91-76, on ShannonBrown’s(notes) two free throws with 7:47 to play. The Timberwolves got as close as95-88 on Love’s three-point play with 2:51 left.
Los Angeles converted 19 Minnesota turnovers into 26 points. TheTimberwolves forced 15 turnovers by the Lakers, but had only nine points to showfor it.
NOTES: Just a formality, but the Lakers mathematically clinched a postseasonberth for the 29th time in Jerry Buss’ 31 years as the team’s owner. “He’s agambler—and a proficient one, I think,” coach Phil Jackson said. “He knowsthe odds, he knows when to take the risk, and he carries that sense that this isa risk-reward type of game. This year he took the big risk and brought Lamarback in the hopes that we can get back to where we have a shot at thechampionship again. That was a big bill to chew, for an organization that hadnever lost money in the over the last 30 or so years he’s owned the team.” …Odom, who signed a four-year contract on July 31 that will pay him a guaranteed$27 million—$33 million if the team exercises the option on the fourth year—came in averaging 10.3 points, 9.6 rebounds and 46.3 percent from the field asthe Lakers’ sixth man. … The Lakers have to go no worse than 9-4 the rest ofthe regular season for the 12th 60-win season in franchise history, andJackson’s eighth as an NBA coach. … Bryant needs 25 points to overtake AlexEnglish (25,613) for 12th place on the career scoring list.