Kobe Bryant scored 30 points on Friday to lead two-time defending champions Los Angeles to a 100-86 victory over New Orleans in their Western Conference first-round playoff series.
The win gave the Lakers a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, which continues with Game 4 in New Orleans today.
In the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics dominated the New York Knicks 113-96 to take a stranglehold on their series, while elsewhere, Jamal Crawford’s three-pointer with less than six seconds to play sealed the Hawks’ hard-fought 88-84 victory over the Orlando Magic in Atlanta.
Photo: AFP
Pau Gasol broke out of his playoff slump with 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Lakers, who had 14 points and 11 rebounds from Andrew Bynum and 13 points from Lamar Odom.
Chris Paul had 22 points and eight assists for New Orleans, who managed to keep it close for much of the game, but never really threatened after the Lakers took an early lead.
“They just had a collective effort tonight,” Paul said. “Everybody pitched in and that’s what we really can’t let them do.”
Photo: Reuters
Bryant, who was held to 11 points in the Lakers’ Game 2 victory on Wednesday, showed early that he was upping his intensity, knocking an attempted shot by Carl Landry out of bounds and then driving into the lane himself for a one-handed dunk. Bryant scored 15 points in the first quarter.
It took Gasol longer to warm up. The Spaniard, who had scored just eight points in each of the first two games, had only four points in the first half, but hit a key three-pointer early in the fourth that gave the Lakers a 78-70 lead.
It was only Gasol’s second three-pointer of this season and the second of his career in the playoffs.
Photo: AFP
“It was a low shot clock, Steve [Blake] got the ball there and I was open,” Gasol said by way of explanation of the unexpected shot. “So I caught it, looked at the rim and made the shot.”
Gasol’s three-pointer launched a 10-1 scoring run that included seven points from Gasol as the Lakers enjoyed a double-digit lead for much of the final period.
In New York, where Madison Square Garden was hosting its first NBA playoff game in seven years, the Celtics made sure it wasn’t even close.
Paul Pierce scored 38 points, while Ray Allen added 32 for the Celtics, whose Rajon Rondo dished out a Celtics playoff-record 20 assists in a victory that put Boston within one victory of advancing.
Rondo also scored 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to record a triple double for the Celtics, who had emerged with two close-run victories in Boston, but never trailed and were never threatened in this one.
The Celtics will try to finish off a four-game sweep in New York today.
They lead the best-of-seven series 3-0, with the Knicks no doubt well aware that no team has recovered from an 0-3 deficit to win an NBA postseason series.
Carmelo Anthony had 15 points and 11 rebounds, but shot just four for 16 from the floor for the Knicks. New York remain without a playoff game win in a decade.
Amare Stoudemire, battling back spasms, shot just two for eight and finished with seven points, while Chauncey Billups was again sidelined by a knee injury.
In Atlanta, the Hawks, who took a 2-1 series lead, led much of the contest, but with the score close in the final minutes the tension boiled over.
Zaza Pachulia of Atlanta and Jason Richardson of Orlando were both ejected with 2 minutes, 22 seconds to play after a confrontation, which came after Pachulia fouled Orlando’s Dwight Howard as Howard drove to the basket.
Howard retaliated on his way down with a forearm to Pachulia’s face.
Howard eventually received a technical foul, but Pachulia also shoved Howard from behind after the play was whistled dead.
Richardson waded in, exchanging words with Pachulia, with Pachulia appearing to deliver some headbutts to Richardson, who responded by taking a swipe at Pachulia.
Pachulia and Richardson are in danger of being suspended when the Hawks host Game 4 today, but Pachulia was unrepentant.
“In that situation, I’m never going to back down,” Pachulia said. “That’s just my personality.”
After that the lead changed four times, with Al Horford putting Atlanta ahead for good with less than 47 seconds left.
Crawford, who scored 18 of his 23 points after halftime, then beat the shot clock with his long-range jump shot.
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