Kobe Bryant braves injury; leads the Los Angeles Lakers to a 106-90 win over the gritty New Orleans Hornets
NBA: On Tuesday night, the two times defending champions, Los Angeles Lakers, took a huge stride towards the three-peat, when they knocked down the spirited New Orleans
Hornets 106-90, at the Staples Centre. The win gave the Lakers a vital 3-2 lead and has made them firm favourites to reach the western conference semi-finals.
The Lakers rode on the back of Kobe Bryant. Suffering from an ankle injury, the “black mamba’ did not leave him team alone, not when they were almost on the brink
of dropping the series to the seventh seeded New Orleans Hornets.
After remaining scoreless in the first half of game 4 against the Hornets, the Lakers shooting guard showed his class in this game and shot 6-of-10 in the very first
half. He scored 13 points in the first half alone, including a furious dunk as he propelled the Lakers to a 54-51 lead over the Hornets at the end of first half. His thunderous jam initiated a lead that the Lakers would not let go of, the rest of the way.
The Lakers shot 37-of-75 from the field and also banged seven three-pointers along the stretch, which gave them a huge lift over the opposition. Their 25-of-30 trips
to the charity zone also gave them ascendency over the Hornets who could only shoot 14-of-21 free throws.
Bryant scored team high 19 points and dished out four assists in the win. Andrew Bynum had a double-double, contributing 18 points along with 10 rebounds in 29 minutes.
Pau Gasol matched his game-4 total with 16 points and eight boards while Derek Fisher and Lamar Odom posted 13 points each. Winner of NBA’s J. Kennedy Citizenship
Award, Ron Artest also scooped out 11 points in the win. The small forward recorded a 4-for-8 shooting from the field in 32 plus minutes of action.
The Hornets scored more than the Lakers initially. Three of the five starters scored over or equal to 20 points. The New Orleans bench however failed to make a mark
as the Lakers limited the losing team to just 21 points in the third and 18 points in the final quarter.
Trevor Ariza shot game-high 22 points and also clinched game-high 5-of-8 three-pointers in the loss. Marco Belinelli scooped in 21 points while Chris Paul scored
20 points to go along with 12 assists in 41 minutes. The player made 11 of his 20 points in the first half and was restricted to just nine points in the later half.
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