Kobe’s Off the Charts With 45s

Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain and, now, Kobe Bryant.

Not quite ready to shelve the scoring streak he had unfurled since returning from a flagrant-foul suspension, Bryant carved out an additional piece of NBA history Monday night at Staples Center.

Bryant had 45 points in a 96-90 victory over the Indiana Pacers, becoming the first player since Chamberlain in November 1964 to score at least 45 points in four consecutive games.

Baylor is the only other player in league history to score at least 45 points in four consecutive games, doing it in December 1961.

“I try not to think about it that much because I just try to stay in the moment as much as possible,” Bryant said. “That being said, I still appreciate greatly and feel very blessed and very fortunate [about] what’s going on. I’m just very lucky.”

Pretty good too.

Bryant, who had scored 45, 48 and 50 points in his previous three games, made 14 of 32 shots and had 10 rebounds and five assists. Lamar Odom had 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Kwame Brown had nine points and nine rebounds.

As the crowd chanted “MVP, MVP,” Bryant was again a factor in the final minutes, which started off with a bang.

While driving to the basket, Bryant was cracked on the back of the head by Pacer center Jeff Foster with 5:07 to play. Bryant adjusted his neck, rubbed his head and readied himself for another frenzied finale.

“Thank God I have a hard head,” he said later.

He drove on rookie Danny Granger and hit a fadeaway in the lane with 2:48 left for an 85-83 Laker lead. After Granger hit a short bank to tie the score, Bryant again drove and hit a layup with 1:46 left for an 87-85 Laker lead.

Bryant made two free throws with 9.6 seconds left for his final point total. Seventeen of those points came in the fourth quarter.

“I think that’s remarkable,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said of the 45-point scoring streak. “I’ve seen him do this before at some point -- I don’t think he scored 45-plus points, but 40-plus points for a series of games. He has gone on streaks like this. I’m just hoping he can maintain it without doing anything detrimental to himself physically.”

Bryant had a streak of nine consecutive games with at least 40 points during the 2002-03 season.

Monday’s effort also marked Bryant’s 50th career game of 40 or more points.

Bryant had help from Odom, who hit a three-pointer with 1:20 left for a 90-85 Laker lead.

Last month, Jackson recommended that Odom carefully choose when to loft three-point shots after a string of final-minute misses from beyond the arc.

“Can’t be scared to shoot it,” Odom said Monday. “And I’m not scared.”

After five consecutive losses, the Lakers have won three in a row.

Before the game, Jackson called the next 2 1/2 weeks a “sink-or-swim type of time,” outlining the need for success over a nine-game stretch that began Monday and ends Jan. 27 against Golden State.

So far, they’re doing swimmingly.

The Lakers, and Bryant specifically, didn’t go without their highlights earlier in the game.

Bryant, who had 20 points in the first half, faked a drive along the baseline, watched Pacer guard Fred Jones fall on his backside, and calmly sank a 15-footer in the second quarter.

Also in the quarter, Andrew Bynum, who had not been off the bench in seven of the previous eight games, hit a short hook shot, a five-footer and a layup and finished with six points in four minutes.

The Pacers, 6-7 since Ron Artest went public with his desire to be traded, couldn’t keep Stephen Jackson on the court long enough to make a difference. Jackson, their second-leading scorer without Artest in the lineup, had only eight points in 25 minutes because Bryant kept him in continual foul trouble.

Still, the Pacers led after three quarters, 65-64, thanks primarily to All-Star forward Jermaine O’Neal, who started for the first time since missing three games because of pneumonia. O’Neal had 24 points and 16 rebounds.

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Too close for comfort

The Lakers have played 20 games decided by six points or fewer, the most in the NBA. In those games, the Lakers are 9-11. Most games decided by six points or fewer: Kobe Bryant has averaged 42.4 points in his last eight games. Bryant’s point total and how the Lakers fared in those games:

*--* TEAM GAMES RECORD Lakers 20 9-11 Philadelphia 15 8-7 Golden State 14 8-6 Dallas 15 11-4 Washington 13 5-8 Portland 13 6-7

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*--* DATE OPP., RES. POINTS Dec. 20 Dallas, W 62 Dec. 23 at Orlando, W 21 Dec. 25 at Miami, L 37 Dec. 26 at Washington, L 31 Dec. 28 Memphis, L 45 Jan. 6 Philadelphia, W 48 Jan. 7 Clippers, W 50 Jan. 9 Indiana, W 45

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