Lakers on Road Less Unraveled

It certainly wasn’t pathetic.

The Lakers returned to the scene of their grime, a sloppy 73-point effort a month ago, and were quite a bit tidier Wednesday, completing a surprisingly stout trip with one final rip, a 94-79 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies at FedEx Forum.

Kobe Bryant had 27 points, the Lakers had their best six-game road swing since February 2000 and Coach Phil Jackson had kinder words than he did after the Lakers nearly set a team record for fewest points the last time they were here.

Pathetic? Much closer to pristine, as in finishing 5-1 on a trip against five teams with winning records.

“I’m disappointed we weren’t 6-0, to be honest with you,” Jackson said with a smile. “We let one get away.”

The Laker defense, maligned for the better part of the 104 games since Shaquille O’Neal left town, stood up against the Grizzlies, making them look awkward and askew throughout the night.

Pau Gasol had only 10 points. Damon Stoudamire made two of 10 shots. Eddie Jones had six points in 31 minutes.

The Lakers came into the game with the league’s 16th-best defense and left with a dose of confidence, a dash of belief.

“Guys have taken a certain sense of pride in what they can do,” Jackson said. “It’s very important for us to understand that defense wins. It’s one of the keys that we emphasize.

“We’re not the defensive team Memphis is. Memphis is one of the great defensive teams in the league. We’re a solid defensive team and that’s what I hope we can remain. Be solid, don’t break down and make guys have to make shots.”

They stopped enough shots over the last nine days for their most productive trip since going 6-0 in early 2000 on the way to the first of three championships under Jackson.

The Lakers, 7-9 when they left home after a narrow victory over Charlotte, won in frigid Milwaukee and equally chilly Toronto and Chicago. They lost in Minnesota as Jackson loudly questioned the officiating, but then came Bryant’s game-tilting three-point shot in Dallas followed by his game-turning third quarter against Memphis.

The Lakers had 47 points early in the third quarter but finished with 73 by the end of it, equaling their total last month in Memphis, when Jackson had no other choice but label the effort “pathetic.”

Bryant took control of the quarter, making five of six shots and scoring 13 points to provide a 19-point lead.

He connected on a 21-foot jumper, a layup, a dunk, a reverse layup, a three-pointer and threw in a couple of free throws.

And, indeed, that was him leading a three-on-one break midway through the third quarter, feeding Sasha Vujacic on the left, who then tapped the ball to Smush Parker on the right for an easy dunk.

Bryant, one for six in the first quarter, made nine of 11 shots the rest of the way.

“I just turned it up,” Bryant said. “I can be a decoy and attack when I need to. I made a burst in the third quarter when we needed it.”

The Grizzlies, a surprise so far this season, are now tied for the fifth-best record in the Western Conference, only 1 1/2 games ahead of the Lakers.

“They’re still looking up at us, but if this is how it’s going to be for the rest of the year, then it’s going to be a long year,” Stoudamire said. “That same team that came in here tonight and beat us ... they regrouped and you can see they’ve gotten better.”

With center Chris Mihm ailing because of back spasms and foul trouble, Kwame Brown had another effective outing, scoring nine points and taking six rebounds in 25 minutes. Mihm had seven points and eight rebounds in 20 minutes.

Lamar Odom had 14 points on five-of-six shooting, and Jackson considered the gradual restoration of a franchise’s ego.

“I think people looked beyond us and said, ‘They’re OK, they’re going to have Kobe scoring a lot of points’ and so forth,” Jackson said. “Now I think people are going to have to understand that we’re back in this run and we’re going to be a team to be accounted for. They’re going to be better prepared than they have been the last two weeks.”