Jamison scored 28 points and Fortson collected 15 and 20 rebounds as the Warriors posted a rare 101-90 victory over the Lakers, who again were without Shaquille O'Neal.
On Tuesday, O'Neal was placed on the injured list with ailments to toes on both feet. Without the reigning NBA Finals Most Valuable Player, Lakers coach Phil Jackson used a combination of Samaki Walker and Stanislav Medvedenko to try to stop the league's top rebounding team.
 Danny Fortson hasn't had less than 17 rebounds in his last four games. Wednesday, it was 20. Rocky Widner NBAE/Getty Images |
"We didn't care if they were playing with Kobe (Bryant), Shaq or whoever," Jamison said. "We just wanted the win."
Walker led the Lakers with 18 points in Tuesday's Finals rematch with Phildelphia. But the Warriors were able to get by him and the rest of the Lakers frontcourt with ease.
"It is going to be tough without (O'Neal) in there," Lakers forward Robert Horry said. "But you have to play basketball. They got a lot of rebounds and shots in the paint. We didn't play any inside game tonight, we were strictly from the outside. You live and die by the outside. Tonight we just settled for the outside jumper."
The Lakers had won four straight and 21 of the last 25 meetings with the Warriors. But they lost for just the third time in the last 11 games in Oakland.
Golden State took control in the first quarter, building a 27-20 advantage. Jamison missed his first five shots but capped the quarter with a dunk.
While Jamison struggled early, rookie Jason Richardson scored 10 of his 20 points in the first half. Jamison's tip-in gave the Warriors a 47-43 halftime lead.
Golden State controlled the game until the final quarter, when the Lakers made things interesting.
Los Angeles trailed 78-67 with 9:18 remaining, but Bryant's jumper, a layup by Mark Madsen and a dunk by Bryant sliced the deficit to five points with 6:32 left.
"Kobe is a great player, you can't stop him," Richardson said. "He's like Michael Jordan. That's how Kobe is. In the third quarter, he pretty much killed me. I think I played pretty good defense on him. I just went out there and tried to contest his shots. But he's a great player and he stepped up to the occasion and made shots when his team needed to."
The turning point for the defending champions came with 4:57 left when Devean George was ejected for arguing a foul. Los Angeles was trailing, 82-75, but got no closer than four points as Bryant missed three 3-pointers down the stretch.
Bryant scored 26 of his 39 points in the second half on 17-of-28 shooting to continue his stellar performances against the Warriors this season. He scored 28 points in both meetings at the Staples Center.
Bryant's latest effort came one day after a season-low 12 points. He had been struggling with a rib injury but said he felt little pain.
"I felt surprisingly a lot better than I did yesterday," Bryant explained. "I started experimenting to see what I could do. A couple of dribbles here and there, pull-up jumpers. So I felt better and I started pushing a little bit more.
After Bryant's 3-pointer made it 87-83 with 2:19 left, Jamison took over, converting two jumpers and a dunk that put away the game.
"I think we worried too much about what took place instead of keeping our composure and just playing the game," Jamison said. "Once we got out of control, coach did a tremendous job of telling us to keep our composure and run the offense and get everything going.
"A lot of guys have matured. Two or three weeks ago, we might have crumbled under the pressure. We stayed poised and this team has progressed in the right direction."