LAst Night's Action: Happy Anniversary, Kobe
Lakers 108, Warriors 103 - The Lakers kicked off a slow week in local sports (only five pro games in total) by pulling out a win against the Golden State Warriors. Los Angeles had lost two in a row, but hasn't dropped three consecutive games all season. LAist was in attendance and watched the Lakers once again play to the level of their opponent.
While the Warriors are better off since a massive eight player swap with the Indiana Pacers (four-for-four), they still looked like the team ranked dead last in the NBA in scoring defense. They had a lot of trouble on the glass, allowing rookie Andrew Bynum to grab 15 rebounds. They gave the Lakers 25 points off of turnovers. Kobe smiled a lot while scoring 42, which seemed somehow appropriate on the one-year anniversary of his 81 point performance.
Despite the visitor's troubles, the Lakers were very gracious hosts. They provided Golden State with 24 turnovers, and even let them develop several leads during the game. Los Angeles didn't go ahead for good until there was just 1:11 left to play. It's hard to bash a team that's 12 games above .500, but from courtside LAist could see why the Lakers have struggled against good (Dallas) and bad (New Orleans/Oklahoma City) teams. We also think we saw Kellen Winslow, and he was wearing braces. The Lakers can brace for a long second half unless they improve their ball control and get Lamar Odom and Kwame Brown back from injury.
Elsewhere - The Raiders have a history of going after USC talent on and off the field. This time, after Trojan assistant Steve Sarkisian turned down the head coaching job, offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin agreed to take the helm of the worst program in the pros. Kiffin has never been a head coach and, at 31 years old, will become the youngest person to lead an NFL team. When you're the Raiders, you take what you can get ... UCLA basketball is #2 in the coach's poll and #3 in the AP poll ... USC basketball is #25 in the AP poll, climbing back into the rankings for the first time since March 2002. They missed the coach's list by just a few votes.
AP photo by Danny Moloshok.