Lakers, Mavericks, take commanding NBA West leads

Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 9:16 PM Posted by Beijing News


Kobe Bryant scored 38 points to lead Los Angeles to a 108-94 victory over Utah that put the Lakers on the brink of advancing in the National Basketball Association playoffs.

Bryant bounced back from his worst shooting performance in years as the Lakers took a 3-1 lead over the Jazz in their best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series.

Dallas also took a 3-1 series lead, overcoming a 43-point effort by San Antonio's Tony Parker to post a 99-90 victory over the Spurs, while in New Orleans, the Hornets trimmed their series deficit to 1-2 with a 95-93 victory over Denver.

Bryant scored the Lakers' first 11 points and finished 16-of-24 from the field.

"It was important for me to come out and be a little more assertive," said Bryant, who was held to 18 points on 5-of-24 shooting in th Lakers' game three defeat.

"Coming off that semi-bad performance - that horrible performance I had in that last game, it feels good to respond with a game like this," Bryant said.

Lamar Odom added 10 points and 15 rebounds and Pau Gasol added 13 points for the Lakers, who will try to wrap up the series when they host game five on Monday.

Deron Williams had 23 points and 13 assists and Carlos Boozer also scored 23 with 16 rebounds for the Jazz.

Utah twice moved within five points early in the third quarter, but Bryant and the Lakers snuffed out any comeback bid.

Bryant scored six points in an 8-2 run, hitting two jumpers and adding two free throws as the Lakers took a 72-61 lead with 7:54 left in the third.

"He came out extremely aggressive," Gasol said of Bryant. "You could tell he was ready to leave that game three behind."

In Dallas, Parker also bounced back from a disappointing 12-point performance in San Antonio's game three loss, but it wasn't enough to stop the Mavericks.

Parker's 31 first-half points equalled George Gervin's franchise playoff record for points in a half, but he paid the price in the later going.

"Yeah, I was a little bit tired at the end," Parker said. "I was trying to go hard every play, and I got a little bit tired the last three or four minutes."

Tim Duncan added 25 points and 10 rebounds for the Spurs, but San Antonio couldn't match Dallas' team effort.

Dirk Nowitzki was held to 12 points and Jason Terry - newly named the NBA's top sixth man - had 10 on 3-of-17 shooting. Josh Howard stepped up to score 28 points, Jason Kidd added 17, and the Mavericks outscored the Spurs by 11 points from the free throw line.

"It was a collective effort," Howard said. "We know what San Antonio wants to do with Dirk and Jet, so we're doing different things to get the ball in the basket."

Paul shot 11-of-20 with two 3-pointers and was 8-of-9 from the free throw line. He also helped the Hornets put the brakes on Chanuncey Billups, who had surpassed 30 points in each of the first two games but finished with 16 points in this one.





Supinsky

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