Bryant, streaking Lakers drop Hawks, 101-87

By CHARLES ODUM

ATLANTA (AP) Larry Drew remembers thinking as a young Lakers assistant coach that Kobe Bryant's talent "was off the charts" when the teen made his NBA debut with Los Angeles in 1996.

Fifteen years later, Drew isn't surprised to see Bryant still climbing the charts as the sixth-best scorer in NBA history.

Bryant scored 26 points to pass Moses Malone for sixth on the career scoring list and the Lakers beat Drew's Atlanta Hawks 101-87 on Tuesday night for their eighth straight win.

"He's very unique," said Drew, in his first season as the Hawks' coach, of the Lakers' star. "I was in L.A. when we traded for him, and you saw the talent.

"It was a matter of understanding and picking his spots and learning to play the game on the NBA level. And he did that. ... He's a phenomenal player."

Bryant, a 13-time All-Star, began the night 12 points from matching Malone's 27,409 points. He passed Malone when he made three free throws with 2:05 remaining in the first half.

Bryant has moved past an impressive list of Hall of Fame scorers this season. He passed Malone one week after eclipsing Elvin Hayes for seventh. He also has topped the scoring totals of Hakeem Olajuwon, Oscar Robertson, Dominique Wilkins and John Havlicek this season.

"I'm just very fortunate, that's all," Bryant said.

The Lakers took a three-game losing streak into the All-Star break. Since then, they've won eight straight, a streak that began with a similar 104-80 home win over the Hawks on Feb. 22.

Bryant said the Lakers "are just all on the same page."

"We're making people take contested shots and taking them out of areas they're comfortable in," Bryant said.

"It's not necessarily that we're winning games, but how we're winning them. We're really playing well. We're not making too many mistakes."

Bryant had good support as the Lakers overwhelmed the Hawks with their depth and power game inside.

The Lakers' 7-footers - Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol - both had double-doubles and dramatically affected the Hawks' shot selection. Center Al Horford relied on jump shots for his 17 points.

Bynum had 16 points, 16 rebounds and three blocked shots. It was his third straight game with 16 or more rebounds.

"He wasn't the leading scorer but he still impacted the game," said the Lakers' Lamar Odom of Bynum. "That shows you how important he is to us."

Gasol had 14 points and 11 rebounds.

"Kobe is going to get his shots," said Atlanta's Joe Johnson. "I think we all knew we had to try to limit guys around him. I think the guys around him played big."

Josh Smith scored 16 points for the Hawks, who have lost four of five.

Drew used his small lineup, with Horford joined by Smith and Marvin Williams on Atlanta's front line. Drew wanted the Hawks to use their running game to beat the Lakers.

"We tried to put a lot of emphasis on playing up-tempo, and it seemed like we ran out of gas," Drew said.

After leading 57-49 at halftime, the Lakers scored the first six points of the second half and stretched their lead to 22 points at 79-57 late in the third period. Smith had a three-point play in a 9-0 run for Atlanta to cut the lead to 90-82.

The Lakers answered with an 8-0 run, including Bryant's 3-pointer with 3:22 remaining.

Lakers fans chanted "MVP! MVP!" as Bryant made two free throws with 1:02 remaining. The free throws gave Los Angeles a 100-84 lead. Lakers coach Phil Jackson stuck with most of his starters for the final minute.

"It was a good performance, but after the game the mood was 'Let's get on to the next game,"' Jackson said.

Los Angeles had five players in double figures before the end of the third period.

Notes: Celebrities in the crowd included Atlanta Falcons receiver Roddy White and former NBA star Julius Erving, who lives in Atlanta. ... The Lakers won in Atlanta for the first time since Feb. 5, 2007, ending the Hawks' streak of three straight home wins in the series. ... Odom had 12 points. Derek Fisher had 11 for Los Angeles.

Copyright 2011 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 head coach Phil Jackson:
"We didn't want to give up as many fast break points as we did, but we were able to overcome it with our size down low and the play of our big men tonight. It was a good performance, but after the game the mood was let's get on to the next game. Andrew has been really rebounding well, and I think his size, plus his hand strength has been key in his performance lately. Our defense was really good in the third quarter. We had a poor start to the fourth after a poor end to the third, so that hurt us a little bit."

Andrew Bynum:
"When we come out and play defense, it helps our offense, and that really makes it easier for us to be successful. When we play good half-court defense it makes it tough for the other team, and if we keep doing that we'll continue to be successful. We need to make guys take shots they don't want to."

Ron Artest:
"Andrew really played well tonight. He's still so young, and he only has room to improve and get better. He was a big factor tonight. He's going to be one of the best centers in the league for a while."

Head Coach Larry Drew:
(On the third quarter): "We tried to put a lot of emphasis on playing up-tempo, and it seems like we ran out of gas at a bad stretch. I thought we were right there. I was hoping we would just keep it within striking distance, because in the third quarter we didn't seem to have a lot of energy. I wanted to push the tempo, wanted to get up and down, but it didn't seem like we had a lot in the tank."

"I can't fault my team's effort tonight. I thought they gave a good effort. We ran up against a really good team, and a really hot team. This won't discourage us from trying to get out of this slump we're in. It's going to take a little bit extra from every guy. We're not going to hang our heads, and we're not going to feel sorry for ourselves. We're going to have to grind it out. This is just a part of the season, unfortunately it's toward the latter part, but all teams go through slumps. It's just a matter of us working our way through it, working our way out of it. And most important, that we don't lose confidence in ourselves. I won't allow that to happen."

(On Kobe Bryant passing Moses Malone on the all-time scoring list): "He's very unique. I was in L.A. when we traded for him, and you saw the talent. Here's a young kid, seventeen or eighteen years old, and the talent was off the charts. It was a just a matter of learning the NBA. It was a matter of understanding and picking his spots, and learning to play the game on the NBA level. And he did that. He is certainly, when you look at some of the all-time great players, he'll be amongst the top in scoring, defensively….he has a motor that very good players have. He's a phenomenal player."

Marvin Williams:
"We're just not making shots as a team. The shots that guys are used to knocking down, we're just not knocking down. It's that way for a lot of guys on this team right now. That's why we're not scoring the ball."

"They're so big. We tried to combat that with speed, and we did a good job early. But I think down the stretch, they kind of wore us down, especially on the glass. And that just hurt us tonight."

Kirk Hinrich:
"it was tough. They were more aggressive most of the game. They're a good team. I thought we played hard. We just got a little bit out of sorts at times. They played well. You have to take your hat off to them."

"We wanted to get stops, and get out and run. We had some success with that. But we had a little bit of trouble stopping them. They have great players, and their length is what makes them a championship-caliber team. Those guys are seven-feet with really long arms."

LAKERS VS. HAWKS GAME PREVIEW

By BRETT HUSTON, STATS Senior Writer

The Los Angeles Lakers stumbled into the All-Star break on a three-game losing streak but returned with an emphatic victory over the Atlanta Hawks.

They've been on top of their game ever since - particularly the last time they took the court.

Coming off a rout of the NBA's top team, the Lakers look to match a season high with their eighth straight victory Tuesday night by snapping a three-game skid in Atlanta.

A shocking 104-99 defeat at league-worst Cleveland on Feb. 16 was Los Angeles' third straight, leaving the two-time defending champions with a rather sour taste heading into the break.

The Lakers (45-19) bounced back with a 104-80 victory over Atlanta (37-26) on Feb. 22, and they haven't lost since. A win Tuesday would give them their longest streak since opening 8-0.

The victory that carried the most weight, however, came Sunday. Opening a four-game trip with a matchup against league-best San Antonio, Los Angeles snapped the Spurs' 22-game home winning streak with a 99-83 win in which they led by as many as 32.

"We've improved a great deal. Defensively we're minimizing our mistakes and not making as many mistakes as we were in the first half of the season," said Kobe Bryant, who had a game-high 26 points. "I think that's the big difference."

The Lakers allowed 97.5 points per game and 46.3 percent shooting in going 10-8 from Jan. 12-Feb. 16. Since the break, they've surrendered an average of 87.0 points while holding their opponents to 40.3 percent from the field.

Coach Phil Jackson gave much of the credit for that defensive improvement to assistant Chuck Person.

"He's really been good with the guys and has handled it pretty well," Jackson said. "We've taken the extra time defensively in practice rather than doing as much execution offensively as we have in the past."

Bryant, meanwhile, is on the verge of an offensive milestone. With 13 points Tuesday he'll surpass Moses Malone for sixth place on the NBA's all-time scoring list at 27,410.

The All-Star game MVP hasn't been particularly sharp in recent visits to Philips Arena, though. Bryant has averaged 18.7 points and shot 41.1 percent in his last three games at Atlanta.

Los Angeles center Andrew Bynum sat out all three meetings before grabbing 15 rebounds against Atlanta last month. He had 17 boards in each of the last two games.

The Hawks kicked off a stretch of 10 of 11 at home by beating Chicago 83-80 on Wednesday, but they've dropped their last two. Atlanta allowed Oklahoma City to shoot 50.6 percent in a 111-104 loss Friday, then turned the ball over 21 times while falling 92-79 to New York on Sunday.

Al Horford, who averaged 22.3 points in his previous three contests, was held to four as the Hawks played their eighth game in 13 days.

"Everybody's tired physically," coach Larry Drew said. "Everybody's tired mentally."

Bouncing back Tuesday won't be easy for Horford. The two-time All-Star has averaged a career-low 8.3 points in seven games versus Los Angeles.

Guard Kirk Hinric will be facing the Lakers for the first time with Atlanta, but he has a good idea what to expect. Hinrich's teams have lost seven straight against Los Angeles while he was with Chicago and Washington.

"It's a tough matchup for 29 teams in the league," Hinrich said. "They share the ball, they play the right way, they're coming off a big win. So it's gonna be a tough task."

Copyright 2011 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