Kobe Bryant received huge cheers in his home debut this season and scored 21 points to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to an 87-72 win over the Golden State Warriors.
The Lakers are 3-0 since acquiring All-Stars Karl Malone and Gary Payton in the offseason.
Fans cheered wildly when Bryant made his first jumper on an assist by Shaquille O'Neal. They booed the referee on his behalf in the closing minute when Bryant was called for traveling.
"It doesn't really help my game much, but playing at Staples Center makes me feel more comfortable," said Bryant, who walked out of the arena holding hands with wife Vanessa.
Bryant played 35 minutes -- two less than he did in his first game of the season Saturday night in Phoenix, where he scored 15 points and was greeted by a mix of cheers and boos. He is awaiting trial on sexual assault charges in Colorado.
"He looked pretty good," Warriors guard Avery Johnson said. "The explosion is not where it's probably going to be at the end of the season, but he's making his move really strong to the basket."
Bryant showed no ill effects from the sore right knee that kept him out of the Lakers' season-opening win against Dallas. The last time Bryant played back-to-back preseason games, he had a setback.
"My knee feels very good, it's doing surprisingly well," he said. "I knew it felt strong at the beginning of the game. Last night was kind of a test to see what type of moves I can make offensively and defensively, so tonight I went in and played with more confidence."
"Kobe is finding a pretty good stride," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "His energy seems to be a lot better than it was a week ago."
Clifford Robinson led the Warriors with 19 points. Calbert Cheaney added 17 points and Erick Dampier had a career-high 23 rebounds.
All five Lakers starters scored in double figures. O'Neal had 17 points and 14 rebounds, Malone had 16 points and Payton had 18 points and 11 assists.
The Warriors didn't offer much of a challenge against a team they beat twice last season. But they no longer have leading scorers Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison, and the team is missing starters Nick Van Exel and Troy Murphy to injuries, and Jason Richardson to suspension.
The Lakers led by 11 at halftime, and twice stretched their lead to 17 points in the third.
Calbert Cheaney got the Warriors within single digits at 55-46 on an 18-footer, but Malone, Bryant and Payton scored the Lakers' next three baskets for a 61-46 lead with 3:19 to play.
inside
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier