Knicks Run Afoul of L.A.

Kobe Bryant fans in the big city showed up in droves, hoping to see another run at history.

What they got instead was a free-throw-shooting contest, the Lakers taking a lot and the New York Knicks not, in a sequentially challenged but convincing 130-97 Laker victory Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.

There were 82 foul shots in all, 58 for the Lakers, along with six technical fouls, a flagrant foul and an ejection as the Lakers moved to 1-1 on their seven-game trip, the longest of their season.

Bryant had 40 points and tied his team record by making 23 free throws while shouts of “M-V-P” could be heard in clusters throughout the arena.

He also set a Madison Square Garden record for made free throws, passing the 22 by former Knick forward Bernard King in December 1984 against New Jersey. Bryant’s 26 free throws tied King’s Garden record from the same game.

When there weren’t stoppages in play -- “Everything seemed to be going awry out there,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said -- there was Laker rookie Andrew Bynum scoring a career-high 16 points in only one quarter, the fourth, a possible glimpse of the future.

But the present had to do with Bryant, who, despite another record-setting night, couldn’t satisfy some of the fans who stopped him earlier in the day while he was shopping and asked him to score 90 points, if not 100.

Even the Knick ball boy told Bryant he was slacking.

“What are you doing out there?” the ball boy said afterward, according to Bryant. “I thought you were going to bring your ‘A’ game to New York.”

A B-plus game isn’t so bad if it leads to a 33-point victory.

Bryant made six of 15 shots in the first half and was then told to improve his shot selection to avoid “getting caught up in the anxiety about scoring too many points,” Jackson said.

So Bryant picked his spots from there, making one of two shots and 12 of 14 free throws in the second half. He tied his free-throw record with 5:48 to play and was taken out 12 seconds later.

Some fans booed, apparently disappointed he was only two-fifths the way to 100.

Bryant also made 23 free throws in January 2001 against Cleveland.

Bynum, for his part, made all seven of his shots and easily established a career high while playing the entire fourth quarter.

He scored on a dunk off a rebound, a six-foot hook shot, four layups, a four-foot jumper and two free throws.

“He’s got an appetite, he’s got a heart for the game, and we’re trying to milk-feed it the right way so he grows up to be a real solid player,” Jackson said.

The Knicks, on the other hand, continued to endure a rough few weeks that started with forward Antonio Davis’ foray into the crowd at Chicago to break up a dispute involving his wife and a fan.

Then came a sexual-harassment lawsuit brought against Knick President Isiah Thomas by a former team employee.

Then Coach Larry Brown suggested the team quit on him after a 120-101 loss Monday in Atlanta, leading to a “Kobe vs. Quitters” headline in Tuesday’s New York Post.

Brown didn’t even make it past the third quarter against the Lakers.

He picked a verbal fight with referee Steve Javie, was given two technical fouls and was thrown out as the Knick dancers performed a “Pulp Fiction” routine during a timeout with 5:46 left in the third.

Brown did not stick around to talk to reporters.

At one point, the Lakers had 45 free throws and the Knicks had 18.

“Coach was frustrated with the way we were playing, especially the way the game was being called from his point of view,” Knick guard Stephon Marbury said.

Bryant was yanked to the floor on a drive in the third quarter by Davis, who was called for a flagrant foul. Another two free throws for Bryant put him on the way toward tying his own record.

“Even though there were a lot of breaks within the game,” Bryant said, “we didn’t feel like the momentum ever slipped away from us.”

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

What a month

Kobe Bryant, the NBA’s leading scorer at 36.0 points per game, averaged 43.4 in January:

*--* PLAYER, TEAM G PPG PTS Kobe Bryant, Lakers 13 43.4 564 LeBron James, Cleveland 15 32.8 492 Allen Iverson, Philadelphia 12 32.2 387 Tracy McGrady, Houston 11 31.5 347 Carmelo Anthony, Denver 16 26.9 430

*--*

Source: NBA.com