Preview - Box Score - Recap
March 20, 2006
The Lakers' first two games of their road trip ended with missed contested 3-pointers by Bryant. The Lakers lost to New Jersey 92-89 Friday and to Cleveland 96-95 Sunday despite leading by as many as 18 against the Cavaliers.
This time, Bryant scored 16 fourth-quarter points -- including the Lakers' last 12 -- to make sure the game didn't come down to the closing seconds.
"When the game is on the line, they put the ball in my hands," Bryant said. "I've gotta do what I've gotta do, I don't care if it's 50 shots, 60 shots, five shots."
The Celtics trailed 56-40 at halftime, but chipped away at the lead in the third quarter and pulled within 82-74 to start the fourth.
Pierce cut the deficit to 99-94, but Bryant responded with a driving layup with 1:20 remaining to extend the Lakers' lead to 101-94. He then made two free throws with 49.6 seconds left to extend the lead.
"Kobe was the difference," Celtics forward Wally Szczerbiak said. "In the second half, we came back and we competed. But against a good team and a great player, we just didn't play well enough to win."
The Lakers double-teamed Pierce for much of the fourth quarter and held him to two points.
This time, Bryant scored 16 fourth-quarter points -- including the Lakers' last 12 -- to make sure the game didn't come down to the closing seconds.
"When the game is on the line, they put the ball in my hands," Bryant said. "I've gotta do what I've gotta do, I don't care if it's 50 shots, 60 shots, five shots."
The Celtics trailed 56-40 at halftime, but chipped away at the lead in the third quarter and pulled within 82-74 to start the fourth.
Pierce cut the deficit to 99-94, but Bryant responded with a driving layup with 1:20 remaining to extend the Lakers' lead to 101-94. He then made two free throws with 49.6 seconds left to extend the lead.
"Kobe was the difference," Celtics forward Wally Szczerbiak said. "In the second half, we came back and we competed. But against a good team and a great player, we just didn't play well enough to win."
The Lakers double-teamed Pierce for much of the fourth quarter and held him to two points.
"We just threw everybody at (Pierce)," Odom said. "If you put two guys on him, you have a high percentage of stopping him."
Smush Parker scored 14 points and Kwame Brown had 11 points and nine rebounds for the Lakers.
After missing his first four shots, Bryant made six of his next eight attempts and scored 12 first-quarter points to help the Lakers jump out to a 32-26 lead.
Szczerbiak cut the deficit to 42-35 with a 3-pointer midway through the quarter, but the Lakers went on a 14-2 run to make it 56-37 on an Odom layup with 43.7 seconds remaining.
"When you're down by 19, it just puts too much pressure on your defense," Pierce said. "We needed to make consecutive shots and just couldn't sustain it."
Notes
Pierce rolled his right ankle early in the first period, but returned to the court 2 minutes later and promptly made a turnaround jump shot. ... The Celtics are the only team in the NBA to have an all-time winning record against the Lakers. ... Allen set career highs with four blocked shots, nine free-throw attempts and eight free throws made. ... The Lakers are 17-12 against Eastern Conference teams, 18-22 against Western Conference teams.
Source: Yahoo! Sports
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap...
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| LA Lakers 105, Boston 97 |
| Preview - Box Score - Recap |
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| LA Lakers | ||||||||||||
| Name | Min | FG | 3Pt | FT | Off | Reb | Ast | TO | Stl | Blk | PF | Pts |
| L. Odom | 41 | 6-10 | 3-5 | 2-2 | 2 | 9 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 17 |
| B. Cook | 15 | 3-6 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| K. Brown | 35 | 5-7 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 4 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 11 |
| S. Parker | 35 | 6-11 | 2-5 | 0-0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 14 |
| K. Bryant | 40 | 18-39 | 0-5 | 7-10 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 43 |
| J. Jackson | 4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| D. George | 18 | 1-3 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| L. Walton | 26 | 3-9 | 1-2 | 2-2 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 |
| S. Vujacic | 10 | 1-1 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| A. Bynum | 4 | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| R. Turiaf | 3 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| D. Green | DNP - Coach's Decision | |||||||||||
| A. McKie | DNP - Coach's Decision | |||||||||||
| C. Mihm | DNP - Coach's Decision | |||||||||||
| Totals | 231 | 43-90 | 7-19 | 12-16 | 12 | 45 | 27 | 12 | 11 | 1 | 25 | 105 |
| Percentages: | .478 | .368 | .750 | Team Rebounds: 9 | ||||||||
| Boston | ||||||||||||
| Name | Min | FG | 3Pt | FT | Off | Reb | Ast | TO | Stl | Blk | PF | Pts |
| R. Gomes | 30 | 4-9 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| P. Pierce | 37 | 8-19 | 2-8 | 8-11 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 26 |
| R. LaFrentz | 22 | 2-5 | 0-2 | 3-4 | 1 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 |
| D. West | 38 | 5-14 | 1-3 | 2-2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 13 |
| W. Szczerbiak | 39 | 6-14 | 2-6 | 1-1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| O. Greene | 11 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| T. Allen | 29 | 5-11 | 0-2 | 8-9 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 18 |
| G. Green | 2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| K. Perkins | 14 | 2-4 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| A. Jefferson | 9 | 1-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| D. Dickau | DNP - Coach's Decision | |||||||||||
| D. Jones | DNP - Coach's Decision | |||||||||||
| M. Olowokandi | DNP - Coach's Decision | |||||||||||
| B. Scalabrine | DNP - Coach's Decision | |||||||||||
| Totals | 231 | 34-80 | 5-21 | 24-30 | 12 | 44 | 22 | 15 | 7 | 9 | 18 | 97 |
| Percentages: | .425 | .238 | .800 | Team Rebounds: 5 | ||||||||
| Game Info | ||||||||||||
| Technical Fouls: Phil Jackson Officials: Greg Willard, Kevin Fehr, Monty Mccutchen | ||||||||||||
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Sec: 321, Seats: 15-17
