The New Jersey Nets matched the worst start to an NBA season with their 17th straight loss Sunday night, with Kobe Bryant scoring 30 points in the Los Angeles Lakers' 106-87 victory. A few hours after New Jersey fired coach Lawrence Frank, the undermanned Nets had little prayer of keeping up with the defending league champions, who won their sixth straight game. Falling behind by 27 points in the first half despite clearly playing hard for temporary head coach Tom Barrise, the Nets matched... Read Full Story
Pau Gasol scored 22 points to lead seven players in double figures and also had 12 rebounds, and the Los Angeles Lakers won their fifth straight game with a 130-97 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night. Ron Artest added 19 points, five rebounds and four assists, and Kobe Bryant had 20 points, six rebounds, six assists and five steals after a slow start to help the Lakers to their highest point total of the season. Los Angeles had plenty of offensive power to beat the... Read Full Story
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 30 (UPI) --
Kobe Bryant's 30 points led the Los Angeles Lakers in a 106-87 win over New Jersey Sunday that stretched the Nets' losing streak to a record-tying 17 games.
New Jersey's 0-17 mark tied the1988-89 Miami Heat and the 1999 Los Angeles Clippers for the longest losing streak to start a season.
Pau Gasol added 20 points for the Lakers, who won their sixth straight contest.
Brook Lopez topped the Nets' scoring with 26 points.
The Nets' loss came hours after... Read Full Story
Editorial Notice: Quest for the Ring will be between now and the end of 2009 providing a complete Real Player Rating Series Report, like the one below, for each and every 2009 West Final game, for each and every 2009 East Final game, and for each game in the 2009 NBA Final Series. The Mavericks-Nuggets West Semifinal series is also being covered this way in full. Following the posting of the Real Player Ratings Series Reports, we will post the Real Game Ratings Reports for all of these games... Read Full Story
OAKLAND, Calif., Nov. 29 (UPI) --
Pau Gasol scored 22 points and Kobe Bryant had 20 Saturday in the Los Angeles Lakers' 130-97 romp over the Golden State Warriors.
The Lakers had seven players in double figures and shot 54.3 percent as a team in their most productive game of the season.
Ron Artest had 19 points and Shannon Brown chipped in 17.
Los Angeles put the game out of reach late in the third quarter with a 26-10 run that staked the Lakers to a 25-point lead.
Before that, the... Read Full Story
The Los Angeles Lakers made a statement last season. In the face of so many naysayers, Kobe Bryant proved that this team had what it takes to win a championship. Many fans and experts doubted Kobe Bryant once the Lakers lost Shaq.
The Lakers were one of the few teams in the NBA that showed what they did in regular season didn’t matter. The Lakers weren’t playing for more then 60 wins, having home court advantage or just a finals appearance, their whole season was based on winning the... Read Full Story
Los Angeles Times Pau Gasol sparks Lakers in rout Los Angeles Times Give the Lakers Kobe Bryant, a rapidly improving Andrew Bynum, one of the NBA's top sixth men and one of the league's top defenders. . . . and then give them Pau Gasol. Their true degree of success this season will not ... Warriors have no answer for Gasol in middle San Francisco Chronicle Golden State Warriors routed by Los Angeles Lakers 130-97 San Jose Mercury News PRO BASKETBALL: Lakers ready for the road Pasadena Star... Read Full Story
The Los Angeles Lakers seem to be having trouble on the road. Two of the team's stars were nailed on one of L.A.'s most famous freeways recently for breaking some driving laws. TMZ has learned Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum were each pulled over on the 405 freeway in the last few days. Odom was popped for speeding -- law enforcement sources tell us he was going more than 80 miles per hour. Bynum was busted for shadier circumstances -- cops say he had illegally tinted windows on his Mercedes... Read Full Story
Kobe Bryant scored 34 points, Pau Gasol added 11 points and 16 rebounds, and the Los Angeles Lakers exploited a major size advantage in their fourth straight victory, 100-90 over the New York Knicks on Tuesday night. Ron Artest scored 17 points for the Lakers, who took control of their eighth win in 10 meetings with New York by scoring 17 consecutive points in the third while holding the Knicks scoreless for nearly 7 1/2 minutes. Andrew Bynum added 17 points and eight rebounds on an injured... Read Full Story
Kobe Bryant scored 26 points, including an astonishing basket from behind the backboard, and the Los Angeles Lakers cruised to a 101-85 rout of the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday night. The defending NBA champions, who squeaked out a 101-98 overtime win at Oklahoma City on Nov. 3, had this one in control throughout with help from Andrew Bynum's 25 points and nine rebounds. Bryant also had seven assists and six rebounds. Pau Gasol, playing his second game since coming back from a right... Read Full Story
