Lakers hit the gas to pull out of skid

Finally, a team they could beat.

Finally, an offense they could contain.

Finally, a defense they could penetrate.

The Lakers broke out of their demoralizing six-game losing streak Friday night at Staples Center by beating the Boston Celtics, 122-96.

OK, so it wasn’t the Celtics of Russell and Cousy or Bird and McHale. This ragged group has a 13-41 record, worst in the NBA, has won only eight of 28 road games and recently endured a franchise-record 18-game losing streak.

But then, nobody is comparing this Lakers team with the Showtime clubs either. They continue to play without Luke Walton and Kwame Brown, both out with ankle injures, and are now missing forward Vladimir Radmanovic as well.

He is out because of a dislocated shoulder that, he admitted earlier Friday, was caused by a snowboarding accident rather than an innocent fall as he had claimed earlier in the week.

So the Lakers will take their victories where they can find them these days.

Led by Kobe Bryant’s 38 points (13 for 23 from the field, including five for seven from three-point range) in just 31 minutes, the Lakers shot 54.2% while holding the Celtics to 42.1%.

“Defense, that was the difference,” Lamar Odom said. “We played good team defense. We were able to take the game away from them even though they came out shooting.”

That the Celtics did, surging to an early 13-4 lead.

That’s when Bryant decided unselfishness went only so far.

Bryant has turned his back this season on the shoot-first, look-for-teammates-later approach he has turned to so often in the past.

But Friday night, Bryant quickly realized looking beyond his own fingertips just wasn’t going to get it done.

“I didn’t want to be passive,” he said.

Bryant took the game into his own hands, scoring the next 13 Lakers points, including three consecutive three-pointers, and 22 overall in the quarter to ignite his team.

The Lakers led, 34-30, after the first 12 minutes and visions of another 81-point Kobe night were perhaps dancing in the heads of fans at Staples.

But once the gears were running, Bryant went back to dishing instead of firing, scoring only three points in the second quarter.

The Lakers led, 65-54, at the half, 98-74 after three quarters and cruised through the fourth.

Bryant finished with nine assists, two rebounds and five steals in addition to his game-high point total.

It was the kind of night when two rarely used Lakers got substantial playing time. Shammond Williams, the first reserve guard sent into the game by Coach Phil Jackson, played just over 20 minutes, getting six points and four assists. Fellow guard Aaron McKie played nearly 12 1/2 minutes, getting four points and three assists.

Boston was led in scoring by Gerald Green (21 points) and Al Jefferson (18). Jefferson also tied Odom for the game high in rebounds with eight.

In all, the Lakers had 32 assists to only 22 for Boston, demonstrating the effectiveness of their ball movement.

“Everybody was willing to share the ball. We had more energy, more assertiveness,” said the Lakers’ Ronny Turiaf. “We had a definite desire to stop the bleeding. Kobe got us off to a good start and it carried us through the whole game.

“The baskets that weren’t falling before fell this time.”

Had they lost, the Lakers would have equaled their longest home-court losing streak since they came to Los Angeles from Minneapolis for the 1960-61 season. It would have been their sixth straight loss at home, a level of futility reached only by the 1992-93 team, according to STATS LLC.

But there was no talk of losing streaks after Friday’s game.

The bleeding had been stopped.

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steve.springer@latimes.com

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KEYS TO THE GAME

* Rather than distributing the ball early in the game as he has done in the past, Kobe Bryant started shooting in the first quarter, getting 22 points in the opening 12 minutes to get his team going.

* Defense, a major problem in the team’s six-game losing streak, was a strength Friday night. The Lakers held Boston to a 42.1 shooting percentage from the floor.

* Ball movement: The Lakers had 32 assists and five players with double figures in scoring.

-- STEVE SPRINGER