Lakers Take a United Stance

Frank Hamblen provided the option of staying together or fragmenting, and the Lakers answered definitively, in unison and fragment-free.

The Lakers managed to win the first 48 minutes of a six-game trip, coming out a day after a two-hour clear-the-air meeting and aligning themselves in the right direction, at least for one game.

They defeated the Dallas Mavericks, 100-95, in front of 20,411 Thursday at American Airlines Center, a win big enough that Kobe Bryant made reference to Ben Franklin afterward and Lamar Odom talked of confidence instead of cataclysm.

Bryant had 36 points on 14-for-22 shooting, Odom had 15 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists, and the Lakers pulled into a tie with the Denver Nuggets for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

“Nobody standing in front of us thinks we were going to win on this trip,” Bryant said. “Nobody, nobody. So there’s no pressure on us. This is an opportunity for us to go out and do something big.”

One Philadelphian then paraphrased another.

“We must all hang together or we will surely all hang separately,” Bryant said.

A day after Odom said he and his teammates didn’t need to be “best buddies” off the court to be successful, the Lakers looked quite content as a group, perhaps the end result of their meeting Wednesday that ran long and forced them to scramble to their charter flight in time to get here by nightfall.

At the meeting, coaches asked players -- again -- to avoid deferring to Bryant and stop force-feeding him the ball if he wasn’t open. Even Bryant pleaded the point to teammates, telling them to read the defense and look for the open man, no matter who it was.

Laker coaches also insisted on better defense, bringing up the statistic that the Lakers were 25-3 when holding teams under 99 points and 5-26 when allowing 100 or more.

They are now 26-3 in the 99-and-under department.

After an unsettling 110-101 loss Tuesday to the Clippers, the lasting image was of Odom firing the ball the length of the court in frustration and getting ejected with 1:47 left.

The lasting image Thursday was a defensive presence in the final minutes that had been lacking in the Lakers’ 0-3 road trip last week.

The Lakers received two blocked shots from Chris Mihm and one from Bryant, who got behind Dirk Nowitzki and stuffed his shot attempt with 1:02 left to play. Bryant then moved downcourt with Jumaine Jones and dunked the ball off a rebound for a 98-93 Laker lead after Jones missed a layup.

Nowitzki missed a three-point attempt with 10.9 seconds left and the Lakers made enough free throws from there -- two by Atkins and one by Butler -- to maintain the cushion.

“It’s big to keep everyone’s confidence up,” said Odom, who was three assists from his first triple-double this season.

The Lakers trailed, 74-70, going into the fourth quarter, but Tierre Brown made two three-pointers in the first two minutes of the quarter, including one with 10:05 left to play that put the Lakers ahead, 78-77.

It was enough to move Hamblen to talk of multiple contributions afterward, “none bigger than Tierre Brown coming off the bench.”

Brown finished with 10 points and two assists in 16 minutes.

There were other defining moments in the quarter, as the Lakers beat back a team that had been 30-2 when leading after three quarters.

Bryant hit an 18-foot fadeaway as the shot clock expired with 7:20 left to provide an 85-82 lead.

Bryant also created a little history in the second quarter, making his 41st consecutive free throw and breaking a franchise record held by Gail Goodrich.

“Kobe was magnificent, made the right decisions when he was doubled,” Hamblen said. “He’s got the day off [today] if he wants it.”

Hamblen said after the loss to the Clippers that this six-game road trip would determine whether the Lakers “stay together or fragment.”

“It’s the first block,” Hamblen said. “We’ve got the first one, we’re moving on to the second one.”