Kobe shakes off pain to lead Lakers past Kings in double OT
By Jimmy Spencer, for NBA.com
Posted Sunday December 27, 2009 2:29AM
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (NBA.com exclusive) -- When you don't get the gift you want for Christmas at home, sometimes you have to hit the road and find it for yourself.
A night after a Christmas Day loss to Cleveland, the Lakers rebounded with a 112-103 double-overtime victory in Sacramento.
Already battling a fractured right index finger, Lakers star Kobe Bryant went without feeling in his right elbow late in Saturday night's contest. It wasn't enough to slow him, as the premier scorer finished with 38 points on 16-for-30 shooting.
Bryant said he hit his funny bone in the third quarter, and after a shot to end the third, he said his arm went numb and he couldn't bend his elbow.
"I had to stay in a good enough shooting range, I couldn't bring it back cocking and shooting like I normally do," Bryant said.
Bryant was visibly hurting -- to the point of favoring his off-left hand. He was just 0-for-1 in the fourth quarter and 1-for-4 in the first overtime after going 13-for-21 through the first three quarters.
Bryant joked about his cold stretch: "I was hot as a pistol."
Lakers head coach Phil Jackson said that Bryant told him to keep him close to the basket late in the game so he could score.
Jackson said he left Bryant in despite the star relying solely on his left arm, "He was defending and got some things done out there on the defensive end of it."
"Obviously that feeling in his arm came back in the second overtime," Jackson said.
Bryant hit a pair of 3-pointers in the final overtime to help claim the victory for the Lakers. The Lakers improved to an NBA-best 24-5 this season.
Pau Gasol scored 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds while Lamar Odom recorded his 12th double-double of the season with 13 points and 15 rebounds.
Odom started in the place of Ron Artest who, according to Lakers officials, suffered an injury to his head and left elbow on Friday night when he tripped carrying boxes down stairs.
He received stitches to both his head and elbow and was not with the team. A neurologist diagnosed that Artest suffered a concussion from the fall.
Artest is considered day-to-day, but head coach Phil Jackson said he anticipates that Artest's desire to be with the team will lead him back with the Lakers when they travel to play Phoenix on Monday.
With the game tied at the end of regulation, Gasol was awarded two free throws on a loose ball foul but missed both.
The final scene of regulation looked too familiar for Sacramento after a similar overtime loss in its last game.
Guarded by Bryant, the Kings cleared out for rookie Tyreke Evans, who initiated his drive with three seconds on the clock only to have the ball knocked away by Bryant. Against Cleveland, the same clear-out play was called but Evans never got off a clear shot against LeBron James.
After being shutout in overtime versus Cleveland, Sacramento jumped out on a 7-0 run against Los Angeles. But the Lakers answered with a run of their own and cut the deficit to two with 1:27 remaining.
Evans, who didn't start the first overtime and entered at the same time Los Angeles made its run, had the ball in his hands with a two-point lead with 40 seconds remaining. The Kings once again ran a clear-out play for Evans, who pulled up off the dribble and missed from just inside the 3-point line.
After a Bryant miss, Derek Fisher gained the offensive rebound and missed on a drive into the lane, but a Gasol tip-in with 0.4 seconds sent the game into a second overtime.
"It was the worst I have ever played in the NBA," Evans said.
"This is definitely the worst I have felt after a game. I had two chances and I really had one chance to win the game and I didn't pull it out."
The Lakers have only lost consecutive games once this season, falling to the Denver Nuggets then Houston Rockets in November.
The energized Kings, led by Donte Greene's spirited 11 first-quarter points, jumped out to a 31-28 lead in the first quarter. Greene caught an inadvertent elbow in the post from Andrew Bynum and earned six stitches midway through the second but played through the game.
Beno Udrih ended the first half sprinting full court with five seconds remaining to hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer and the Kings led 57-55 at halftime. The game was tied 78-78 entering the fourth quarter.
Purple is a common thread for both teams in the California rivalry, and a blend of both fans shared Sacramento's Arco Arena with the visiting Lakers in town. The crowd appeared to roar and boo for each basket by either side, with one pro-Lakers sign reading, "Staples North."
