Lakers Take Home a Loss

Home defeat home.

The Lakers returned to Staples Center after two close road losses and fell again, this time to the Memphis Grizzlies, 100-99, Wednesday in overtime.

The Grizzlies entered with the league’s top defense, giving up only 86.3 points per game, and the Lakers almost pushed past them with a little bit of Chris Mihm, a little more of Devean George and a lot of Kobe Bryant.

It wasn’t enough. The Lakers, 9-7 on the road, fell to 6-7 at home.

“We’ve got to start extending ourselves at home and playing better,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. “We talked about that as a team [Wednesday], establishing a home record and some credibility here.”

The Lakers looked credible in establishing a 10-point lead in the second quarter, but, as they did Monday against Washington, couldn’t hold on.

Bryant, agitated enough after the loss in Washington to topple a TV monitor outside the Laker locker room and angrily address his teammates once they got inside, had 45 points against Memphis on 13-for-37 shooting.

He had missed 23 of 33 shots before hitting three consecutive shots in overtime that sliced into a 100-92 Memphis lead. He drilled a three-pointer with 1:27 left, then connected on a seven-footer in the lane and a driving layup to bring the Lakers to within a point with 24 seconds left.

The Lakers had a chance after Mihm stole an errant pass from an off-balance Pau Gasol with 14.9 seconds left, but Bryant was way off on a reverse layup, Mihm missed a short hook shot after grabbing the rebound, and the Lakers lost for a third consecutive time.

“It was a great opportunity that we muffed,” Jackson said.

It was a physical game for both teams, with players coming and going because of injuries and ejections.

Bryant took an elbow on a drive by Memphis forward Mike Miller that caused an inch-long gash near his left eye with 9:40 left in the third.

“I’ll be back,” he yelled as he walked off the court with Laker trainer Gary Vitti.

Bryant backed up his pledge, returning with 7:01 left in the quarter and a bandage to the left of his eye, with three stitches to come after the game.

Bryant was later called for a flagrant foul when he rapped Miller with a forearm to the chin as Miller drove the lane with 8:24 left in the fourth quarter.

“Any player that was going to come down the lane at that particular time, I was going to let them know that they just can’t walk through here,” Bryant said. “I think we as a team have to do a better job of establishing that, and me as the leader of the ballclub, I have to take initiative to do that.

“Hopefully everybody else will see that, especially this being our home court. People come here and think it’s Hollywood and all this other stuff and they’ll come down and look pretty and shoot jump shots and dunk the ball and stand over the ball and all this other cute stuff. We’ve got to stop that.”

Mihm also left briefly because of a bruised left knee but finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds.

Jackson tried to shake things up by inserting George into the staring lineup for the second time this season. Brian Cook, who had flu-like symptoms, suited up but did not play.

George had 18 points and a play midway through the fourth quarter that caused a pro-Laker chain of events.

George dunked over Gasol after Kwame Brown had partially sealed off Gasol down low. Memphis Coach Mike Fratello, unhappy with the way events were unfolding, was hit with a technical foul, followed by Memphis forward Eddie Jones, who was charged with a technical and ejected with six minutes left in the fourth quarter.

After all the free throws had been added up, the Lakers led, 81-74. It didn’t hold up.

Damon Stoudamire pump-faked at the top of the three-point line, waited for Sasha Vujacic to fly past him, and calmly made a 25-footer to tie the score at 88-88 with 28.2 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Bryant then missed an 18-footer from the right wing with 15.9 seconds left in regulation and the game went to overtime when Dahntay Jones’ three-point attempt at the buzzer was short.

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Month to month

A statistical comparison of the Lakers in November and December:

*--* Nov. CATEGORY Dec. 5-8 Record 10-6 94.1 Points per game 98.6 41.7 Field goal % 43.9 30.5 3-point % 39.4 72.4 Free throw % 70.5 42.3 Rebounds 44.8 19.2 Assists per game 21.1 8.0 Steals per game 6.3 4.4 Blocks per game 6.7

*--*