Lakers Enjoy a Thrashing

Admittedly, it amuses the Lakers when they come to these towns, and they see these people, made hysterical by these early leads, in January.

And they look over and see these opponents waving their arms in the air, begging their crowds for more hysteria, and then these foes clench their fists when the first jumper falls, and pound their chests when they make another.

“We’re getting to the point, it puts a smile on our face,” guard Derek Fisher said, “when we see everybody get excited-- overly excited--early in the game.”

The Lakers beat the Toronto Raptors, 109-89, before a sellout crowd Sunday afternoon at the Air Canada Centre, where Kobe Bryant scored 14 of his 31 points in the third quarter, many straight at Vince Carter, in the first of a five-game trip.

They trailed by nine points in the first quarter, and nine again in the second quarter, and then put the worst home defeat of the season on the Raptors with a rush of points and defense.

Two days before, they beat the Phoenix Suns by 32, so the average margin of victory since Shaquille O’Neal returned from the injured list is 26 points, about his scoring average.

“We’ve developed that kind of fortitude,” Fisher said, “where we don’t get discouraged.”

It is an easier confidence with Bryant and O’Neal together, in body and spirit. O’Neal had 24 points, six rebounds and four assists, though he played only 15 minutes of the second half. Matched more often against Jerome Williams than Carter in the first half, Bryant scored 15 points, then was five for nine from the field and four for four from the line in the third quarter.

“All right, man,” Williams told Bryant near the bus afterward. “They didn’t let me guard you in the third, man.”

Bryant laughed.

His last 10 points of the quarter came in a span of 2:12 late in the period. Carter, who scored 24 points, drew fouls three through five in the last 3:42 of the quarter. The Lakers took a six-point halftime lead and pushed it to 14 before the Raptors scored the final basket of the quarter.

“Just finding a rhythm, waiting for the right time to start being more assertive,” Bryant said. “You go through the game and you just read the defense. For example, you see a gap the first couple minutes of the game, it might not be wise to attack it at that point in time. But you know that gap is there, so you come back to it later on.”

O’Neal was on the bench for Bryant’s final eight points of the third quarter.

“Shaquille’s presence in the game really doesn’t have that much of an impact on that,” Bryant said. “It’s a matter of feeling the momentum, and who’s in and who’s in foul trouble, different matchups. That determines my decisions.”

Coach Phil Jackson saw it differently.

“He knows when Shaq leaves the game it’s a chance to explore and play the way he wants to,” he said. “And he did very well in doing so.”

With 3:16 left and the Laker lead 21 points, trainer Gary Vitti ripped the pad from Bryant’s right side and flipped it over the bench to Chip Schaefer, the club’s athletic performance coordinator.

It was not entirely bloodless for the Lakers, who have won four in a row.

Rick Fox was elbowed in the mouth by Eric Montross with 5.54 left in the third quarter and played two minutes while swallowing the blood from that. In fact, he made his only shot--a three-pointer from the top--between taking the elbow and having his upper lip stitched shut by Toronto’s team doctor.

Beyond that, and a first-quarter lapse in defense in which the Raptors scored on nine consecutive possessions, the Lakers were precise and forceful, as they were in Friday’s win over the Suns.

The Raptors were distressed that they were awarded only five free throws to the Lakers’ 29, but there was a reason they stayed out of the lane.

“The general is back,” O’Neal said. Carter missed the fourth quarter in Los Angeles because of a shoulder injury, and could have--and maybe should have--missed the last 21/2 quarters here.

He had received a technical foul because of his over-the-top reaction to a call early in the second quarter, and another technical would have meant automatic ejection.

The opportunity for it came five minutes later, at midcourt on the right sideline.

As Carter dribbled up the floor, Horry caught him and stopped him with his left arm. Carter became incensed and flailed at Horry with his right hand, an attempt either to free himself or punch Horry.

Horry then grabbed a fistful of Carter’s jersey.

Referee Rodney Mott separated the two as Carter shouted at Horry, “Let me go! Let me the ... go!”

Often, that would be a double technical foul, one on Horry and one on Carter. Mott also made a gesture toward Horry that suggested he had ejected Horry.

The three officials met and the result was a technical foul on Horry and that was all.

Two weeks ago in Golden State, Mott ejected Jackson, then reinstated him when it turned out Jackson was right about a call.