Lakers Outduel Knicks

There were bruises, taunts and several near-brawls.

There was a basketball game too, between two high-profile, low-chemistry basketball teams and the Lakers and New York Knicks took out all their frustrations on each other for four slug-it-out quarters.

The Lakers won, 99-91, before 17,505 on Sunday at the Great Western Forum, ending a two-game home losing streak and raising their record to 20-11.

Derek Harper, who missed a shot that could’ve saved the Lakers at the end of their loss Friday, buried the Knicks on Sunday with back-to-back three-point baskets in the final four minutes.

Emotions began to boil over at the end of the third quarter, and catapulted straight into a blistering fourth.

With 2.4 left in the third quarter, Kurt Thomas and Dennis Rodman finalized their game-long wrestling match with a particularly eventful spill.

Battling for position, Thomas grabbed Rodman around the neck area and threw him to the floor, and as Rodman took his lengthy tumble, he pulled Thomas along with him, about 20 feet, near the sideline as teammates and officials wheeled into the area.

Thomas was given a flagrant foul and ejected, and Rick Fox was handed a technical foul for shoving a Knick player in the brief scrum.

The end result was the Lakers with a 72-65 lead at the end of three.

Then in the early minutes of the fourth quarter, Patrick Ewing, in the middle of a miserable shooting day, was whistled for a pushing Rodman, then Ewing drew a technical for complaining about the call.

There was more: As O’Neal threw down a slam dunk with 6:13 left in the fourth, he got tangled with Chris Dudley, then kicked and shoved Dudley to the floor.

That got O’Neal a technical.

Then Dudley grabbed the ball, and in a quite nice toss, nailed O’Neal in the back from 55 feet. Both big men glared at each other, Dudley started a slow walk toward O’Neal, but was halted. Then ejected.

The Lakers, who kept Rodman in the starting lineup, started out, once again, slowly.

The opening unit made only five of its first 19 field-goal tries (26.9%) and saw the only-slightly-less successful Knick squad grapple to a 24-15 lead late in the first quarter.

Then Kobe Bryant, who had a game-high 29 points, began to take over.

O’Neal and Glen Rice added 21 and 19 points, respectively, for the Lakers. Latrell Sprewell led the Knicks with 25 points.