Lakers retain enough of the Christmas spirit

So, there was no letdown by the Lakers.

Instead, they forged ahead, leaving behind the hyped Christmas Day game against the NBA champion Celtics, living in the now and not Thursday’s big-time win over Boston.

The plan was for the Lakers to build on the momentum of the Boston win, to jump over Golden State on Sunday night, which they did in throttling the Warriors, 130-113, at Staples Center.

This was the same Warriors team that upset the Celtics on Friday night in Oakland.

The Lakers took notice of that and vowed not to let it happen to them.

They scored a season high in points. They had six players score in double figures, led by Kobe Bryant with 31 points on nine-for-15 shooting in only 31 minutes, none in the fourth quarter.

“The energy level wasn’t nearly as high as coming out in the Celtics game,” Luke Walton said. “We came out to the warmup lines in the Celtics game and the crowd was going crazy already. Emotionally, that game was a lot bigger.

“But I think it shows our maturity and the character of our team that we were still able to come out and play at the level we needed to to get a nice secure win tonight and not let it come down to the wire.”

The Lakers knew it would be a game of runs, a game in which their defense would be tested.

When they built a 54-39 lead in the second quarter, it wasn’t a shock to them that the Warriors just ran right back at them and closed to within five points before the Lakers settled for a 65-58 halftime lead.

But the Lakers, knowing that the Warriors give up the most points in the NBA (110.7), just cranked it back up in the second half.

The Lakers went up by as many as 26 points en route to their fourth consecutive win.

“This was an important game for us to really continue to show some presence and dominance on our home court,” said Derek Fisher, who had 19 points on nine-for-12 shooting. “We play this team again in 10 days or so [in Oakland], so I wanted to try and set the tone on how we played tonight.”

To the very end, the Lakers poured it on the Warriors.

There was a moment when Trevor Ariza stripped the ball from DeMarcus Nelson and raced up court on the fastbreak, Josh Powell trailing.

Ariza whipped a behind-the-back pass to Powell for a two-handed dunk that had the crowd on its feet cheering some more and chanting, “We want tacos.” (The Lakers have a promotion in which fans in attendance receive a coupon for two free tacos at a fast-food chain if the team holds an opponent under 100 points in a home victory.)

That was going to be hard for the Lakers, considering the Warriors entered the game second in the NBA in scoring, averaging 104.7 points per game.

When Anthony Randolph dunked with 3:09 left, pushing the Warriors past the century mark but still trailing, 123-101, the fans booed.

All that was left for the fans was to cheer Sun Yue when he scored with 26.4 seconds left, his sixth point of the season in just his second game.

At the end, the fans were happy the Lakers had improved to 25-5.

As for the Lakers, the joy came from knowing they have no practice today or Tuesday.

They don’t play again until Friday, when they host the Utah Jazz, more time to rest bodies and heal wounds.

“I’m going skiing. What are they going to do, fire me? I’m going to go get my Vladimir Radmanovic on,” cracked Bryant, referring to when Radmanovic separated his right shoulder while snowboarding during the All-Star break in 2007, which forced him to sit out 24 games.

“I’m joking,” Bryant continued. “I’m going to enjoy the next couple of days, though, just kick back.”

--

broderick.turner@latimes.com