Lakers Gameday | 12/28/08 | Lakers 130, Warriors 113
 Los Angeles Lakers
Western Conference Standing : 1 Streak: Won 4 |
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 Golden State Warriors
Western Conference Standing : 11 Streak: Lost 1 |
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---Francisco Gomez, Lakers.com
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Bryant leads Lakers past Warriors, 130-113
LOS ANGELES(AP) Kobe Bryant scored 31 points, Derek Fisher added 19 and the Los Angeles Lakers rolled to a 130-113 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night. There was no letdown by the Lakers after their intense Christmas Day victory over Boston in the teams' first meeting since the NBA finals last summer, won by the Celtics. The night following the 92-83 loss in Los Angeles that ended their 19-game win streak, the Celtics fell to the Warriors 99-89 in San Francisco. It was the first time this season Boston had lost two in a row. The Lakers, who hadn't played since Thursday, breezed to a relatively easy victory over the Warriors, who have won just twice in 19 games against them at Staples Center. Sasha Vujacic had 17 points, Pau Gasol had 13 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, and Andrew Bynum chipped in with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Jamal Crawford returned to the Warriors' lineup after missing two games with a groin strain and scored 22 points. Marco Belinelli and Brandan Wright had 14 points apiece, and Andris Biedrins had eight points and 17 rebounds. Bryant and most of both teams' regulars sat out the fourth quarter. Los Angeles took control of the game with a 37-point third quarter that increased the lead from 65-58 at halftime to 102-85 heading into the final period. Bryant had 21 points by halftime, going 10-of-10 from the free throw line. Vujacic scored 11 for Los Angeles in the first half. Belinelli had 14 points, Crawford 11 and Biedrins had eight points and 15 rebounds in the half to help the Warriors stay within striking distance. Bryant scored 13 points and Los Angeles was up 31-27 at the end of the first 12 minutes. Crawford and Belinelli each scored nine for the Warriors in the first period, but Golden State committed five turnovers that the Lakers turned into nine points. The Warriors finished with 17 turnovers that Los Angeles converted into 31 points. Notes: Boston returned to form on Sunday, routing the Kings 108-63 in Sacramento. ... The Warriors are still without leading scorer Corey Maggette (19.1 ppg), who has missed 12 games with a strained hamstring. ... Golden State's Ronny Turiaf, making his first appearance in Los Angeles against his former Lakers teammates, was given a video tribute before the game and was applauded by the crowd when he came onto the floor late in the first quarter. ... The Warriors and Lakers split four games last season.
Copyright 2008 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited
LAKERS-CELTICS PREVIEW
by Ty Nowell, Lakers.com After shootaround today we caught up with assistant coach Brian Shaw to talk about tonight’s opponent, the Golden State Warriors (video click here). He threw a couple of interesting statistics at us. Golden State leads the league in offensive rebounds and is near the top in second-chance and fast-break points. This is all indicative of a team that isn’t afraid to hoist up a lot of outside shots. That’s not really a surprise since head coach Don Nelson loves to play fast ( fast like near the border of reckless, not fast like 70 in a 65) and has a roster stocked with gunners like Stephen Jackson, Kelenna Azubuike, Jamal Crawford, Marco Belinelli and Corey Maggette.
It looks like the Warriors will be without Maggette (hamstring), but could regain the services of Crawford, who is still listed as questionable with a strained groin.This won’t effect the style of basketball the Warriors play, they’ll run-and-gun no matter who’s dressed, just the quality and depth. Even without those two, and a record that only sports nine wins, Golden State is a dangerous team every single night. They showed this on Friday when they beat the Boston Celtics a day after the Lakers accomplished the same feat. In that game Boston controlled the game with a double-digit lead for the majority of the contest until hitting a cold streak in the final minutes while the Warriors caught fire and ended up with a 99-89 win. On offense the key for the Lakers will be to go inside early and often. “Last year when Pau was with Memphis, right before the trade, he had 45 or 46 points against the Warriors. His brother this year, with Memphis again, had 26-points and 16-rebounds against Golden State. The point I was trying to make is that you have to get the ball inside against this team,” Shaw said. And it’s not just the Gasol brothers that fair well against Golden State, big men in general seem to prosper when given the touches against the Warriors. The inside game not only takes advantage of the Warriors lack of size down there but leads to high percentage shots that cuts down on long rebounds that can kick start the Warriors fast-break. Added Shaw, “That might be our best defense, how we execute our offense to control the tempo and the pace.”
Lakers - Warriors Preview
The Los Angeles Lakers got a measure of revenge for their loss in the NBA finals with a win over the defending champs their last time out. The Golden State Warriors weren't seeking any retribution, but they were more than happy to do the same. Both coming off a win over the team with the league's best record, Los Angeles and Golden State will meet for the first time this season Sunday night at Staples Center, where the Warriors have struggled for years against the Lakers. Los Angeles (24-5) played five tightly contested games against Boston in the NBA finals last spring before being embarrassed in the Celtics' championship-clinching Game 6 victory. Boston won 131-92, the largest margin of victory ever in a title-clincher. So in the teams' first meeting since that summer night in New England, the Lakers had more motivation than just stopping the Celtics' franchise-record 19-game winning streak. In one of the NBA's most-anticipated regular-season games in years, Los Angeles snapped Boston's streak with a 92-83 Christmas Day win behind 27 points from Kobe Bryant and 20 from Pau Gasol. "We've been waiting for that opportunity for a long time, and we won,'' said guard Sasha Vujacic, who scored 10 points. "I don't like them at all. A lot of people called us softies or whatever. It doesn't matter at all. We know what we can do." Many felt Gasol's strong play in the first three rounds of the postseason dropped off in the NBA finals against the physical Celtics front line, and his average dipped from 17.7 points to 14.7 in the championship series. Yet on Thursday, Gasol was the difference in the fourth quarter, scoring seven points in the final three minutes. "I'm really happy with Pau,'' said Phil Jackson, who became the sixth NBA coach to reach 1,000 victories. "He stepped up in that fourth quarter and we really needed him.'' The fourth quarter was also when the Warriors (9-22) were at their best in their latest game, a performance that led to one of their more improbable wins in recent memory. Boston had to bounce back from its loss in Los Angeles and travel to Golden State on Friday, and it looked to be in good shape at halftime, leading 51-39. But the Warriors chipped away at their deficit in the third quarter, then dominated the final 12 minutes, outscoring the Celtics 35-17 en route to a 99-89 victory. "We're looking for something to get us going. We're looking for something to turn things around,'' said forward Stephen Jackson, who had a game-high 28 points in his return to the lineup after missing four games with a sprained left hand. "This should give us some momentum and some confidence.'' Golden State got Jackson's 19.0 points per game back, but it's still missing its two leading scorers. Corey Maggette (19.1 ppg) has missed the team's last 11 games with a strained hamstring, and Jamal Crawford (19.3) has sat out the past two with a strained groin. Crawford is expected back on Sunday, but Maggette's timetable for a return remains uncertain. Regardless of who's on the floor, the Warriors will have the odds stacked against them at Staples Center. They've beaten the Lakers there twice in their past 18 visits, though one of those was a 115-111 victory on March 23 - their last trip - behind 31 points from Jackson. Bryant has averaged 37.3 points in his last four home games against Golden State. The teams split four meetings last season - two before the Lakers acquired Gasol, and two in late March with the Spanish center sidelined due to injury. Copyright 2008 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited
GAME NOTES
NOTES & CONNECTIONS The Lakers split last season’s series with Golden State 2-2 after having swept each of the previous two season series with Golden State 4-0. This will be the 286th regular season meeting between the two teams in the Los Angeles Era with the Lakers leading the all-time series 178-107. Including their time in Minneapolis, the Lakers and Warriors have met a total of 376 times with the Lakers holding a 229-147 all-time series advantage. The Lakers have not lost a season series to the Warriors since they were defeated 2-3 over five games during the 1994-95 season. The Lakers are 15-3 in their last 18 overall games against Golden State but had two win streaks against the Warriors snapped last season: a 9-game overall win streak against Golden State snapped 12/14/07 at ORACLE Arena and a 9-game home win streak vs. Golden State snapped 3/23/08 at STAPLES Center. At STAPLES Center, the Lakers are 16-2 all-time against the Warriors. On the road, the Lakers have gone 7-3 against the Warriors in their last 10, winning 5-of-their-last 6 at ORACLE Arena. Under head coach Phil Jackson, the Lakers are 25-7 against the Warriors. In 44 career games including 35 starts against the Warriors, Kobe Bryant is averaging 26.7 points. Additionally, Lamar Odom posted his first tripledouble as a Laker with 15 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists against the Warriors on 4/11/06. In the Lakers most recent meetings with Golden State, Odom pulled down a career-high 22 rebounds on 3/23/08 and just one day later, posted 23 points, 21 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 rebounds, becoming the first Laker in 13 years to record consecutive 20-rebound games and just the fifth player in the NBA since 2000 to post at least 20 points, 20 rebounds, five assists and five blocked shots in a single game. Lakers guard Derek Fisher played two seasons for Golden State, where he averaged a career-best 13.3 points during the 2005-06 season. Warriors forward Ronny Turiaf played 3 seasons with the Lakers, averaging a career-best 6.6 points and 3.9 rebounds with the Lakers last season.
LAKERS SCOUTING REPORT
The Warriors are still one of the more difficult teams to match up with in the league due to the way head coach Don Nelson uses his personnel and to the free wheeling style that they play. This team likes to push the tempo of the game and will hoist a number of three point shots in transition. If you let this team hang around they can hit those shots down the stretch and beat you as the Celtics found out on Friday night. The Warriors lead the NBA in points in the paint which is partially due to their fastbreaking style as well as to the fact that they are also number one in offensive rebounds. The fact that they have had key players miss stretches of the season due to injury has hurt their win/loss record but make no mistake about it, this is a dangerous team and this will be a tough game unless we come with the same energy and commitment that we had on Christmas day.
LAKERS UPDATES
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A stat the might surprise is the Warriors ranking at the top of the NBA in blocked shots with 6.6 per game. Former Laker Ronny Turiaf is fourth in the league with 2.17 bpg in just over 17-minutes per game while starting big man Andris Biedrins is swatting away 1.45 shot per game.
