Andrew Bynum helped picked up the slack with a career-high 18 rebounds as Los Angeles overcame a poor shooting performance from star Kobe Bryant, rolling to a 95-77 win over Milwaukee.
Bynum also pumped in 17 points for the Lakers, who needed Sunday’s win to avoid losing three straight games for the first time in almost two years.
“We hit the boards pretty hard,” Bynum said. “Next time I am going to try and get 20 [rebounds].”
PHOTO: AFP
Shannon Brown finished with a season-best 19 points, Jordan Farmar added 17 and Derek Fisher scored 11 for the defending NBA champions. Brown scored 15 of his points in the second half. Bryant, who is playing with a broken right index finger, went four-of-21 from the field and finished with just 12 points.
“He has been fiddling around with a [bandage] for the broken finger,” coach Phil Jackson said of Bryant. “He went from using a hard protective plate to nothing at all and it is different for how he shoots the ball. But it wasn’t all about shooting. It was about balls not being there and not coming in.”
Bryant was just one of 14 with four points in the opening half.
PHOTO: AFP
“I played with the splint off. We put it back on in the second half,” he said. “Just trying to get a little bit more flexibility back. The finger felt pretty good, so we tried to go without the splint. It’s just not strong enough. We’re not playing our best basketball and managed to win some games. We know how we need to get better, and tonight we got better. We played extremely well defensively.”
Hakim Warrick had 14 points and Jodie Meeks finished with 12 for the Bucks.
Brandon Jennings, Luke Ridnour and Charlie Bell had 10 each for the Bucks, who had won three straight but dropped to 5-11 on the road.
The Bucks point total was the lowest they have scored against the Lakers in franchise history. In 1973, Milwaukee managed just 82 points against Los Angeles.
■CELTICS V RAPTORS
AFP, TORONTO
Rajon Rondo recorded his first triple double of the season and Rasheed Wallace scored a season-high 29 points as Boston continued their mastery over Toronto with a 114-107 NBA victory on Sunday.
Rondo had 22 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds for the Celtics who posted their seventh-consecutive victory over Toronto.
The Celtics came out quickly, charging to a 10-0 lead as Rondo assisted on each of Boston’s first four baskets. He also finished nine-for-17 in posting his third career triple double.
It was just the start the Celtics needed after losing four of six games heading into Sunday’s contest. They nailed 11 three-pointers, including five from Wallace, in front of a crowd of 19,800 at the Air Canada Centre arena.
Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kendrick Perkins each scored 16 points for Boston.
“Doc put a big emphasis on it before the game to come out and get a good start,” said Rondo. “Getting off to a good start was big for us. We didn’t finish the game extremely well but we got the job done.”
Rondo said his teammates encouraged him to go for it in the final quarter once they realized he was getting close to a triple double. He had 18 points through the first three quarters.
Rondo got a defensive rebound with just over seven minutes remaining to seal the triple double.
Toronto’s Chris Bosh had 31 points and 13 rebounds before fouling out while teammate Andrea Bargnani scored 23 points.
The loss snapped the Raptors’ six-game win streak at home.
■TRAILBLAZERS V CAVS
AFP, PORTLAND, OREGON
LeBron James flirted with a triple double by scoring 41 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists as Cleveland defeated Portland 106-94, giving the Cavs their six straight win over the Blazers.
James had 31 points in the first half for Cleveland, who have won nine of their last 11 games and are 1-1 on their current five-game road swing.
Mo Williams added 16 points, Anderson Varajao 12 and giant center Shaquille O’Neal had 11 with 11 rebounds.
Cleveland came out quickly in the fourth quarter, going on an 11-0 run.
Brandon Roy scored 34 points to lead Portland, who have lost three of their last four games.
LaMarcus Aldridge finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds, while Andre Miller had 14 points and eight assists.
HORNETS 115, WIZARDS 110
At Washington, Chris Paul scored eight of his 26 points in the final three minutes to lead New Orleans to its sixth-straight win by beating Washington.
Peja Stojakovic scored 20 points, and Paul added 14 assists for the Hornets, who have won three straight away from home to improve their road record to 5-13.
In other NBA action, it was:
• Spurs 97, Nets 85
• Heat 94, Clippers 84
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB