Kobe Bryant was coming off a third quarter to forget. He made one shot. He went down hard on consecutive plays, and on the second one of those he was called for a foul.
The fourth quarter opened with a backup center failing to get him the ball on a handoff. Then his bad night got better, he got back into a groove, and the host Dallas Mavericks had to hold off Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Bryant scored 16 points in the final period – including the Lakers' final 10 – but it was only enough to make things interesting against Dallas. Despite Bryant's 40 points, the Mavs beat the Lakers 112-105 last night for their 10th win in 12 games.
“We did a great job of battling back and actually having an opportunity to do some damage there,” Bryant said. “It just never materialized for us.”
Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard each had 26 points and 10 rebounds for Dallas, but it was point guard Devin Harris who made some of the biggest plays down the stretch.
After Bryant got Los Angeles within five points in the final minutes, Harris made a layup off a wraparound pass to Erick Dampier that bounced off the center and ricocheted back to the point guard. Harris also had a three-point play off a tough driving bank shot from the right wing and set up Jason Terry for a victory-sealing 3-pointer.
“They cut (the lead) but we stayed aggressive at the end and finished it off,” said Harris, who had 18 points.
Dallas broke the game open with an 11-0 run to open the second half. The Lakers, who led much of the first half, never got back ahead.
Mavs coach Avery Johnson said the spark came from a halftime speech from Nowitzki. However, Howard and Harris were oblivious.
“I wasn't even paying attention,” Howard said, insisting he really didn't know what reporters were talking about.
“I was getting retaped,” Harris said, trying to offer a plausible excuse.
Bryant hit 40 points for the third time this year. It's his second in the five games since Los Angeles lost center Andrew Bynum to a knee injury.
CELTICS 87, TIMBERWOLVES 86: Kendrick Perkins scored on a putback with 16.6 seconds left, and Kevin Garnett poked the ball away from Sebastian Telfair as time expired to give host Boston the win. In the first matchup between Garnett and the handful of ex-Celtics traded to Minnesota for him, Boston struggled to put away the team with the worst record in the NBA.
HORNETS 111, CLIPPERS 92: Peja Stojakovic hit six three-pointers and scored 26 points and host New Orleans won its seventh consecutive game.
ROCKETS 89, TRAIL BLAZERS 79: Tracy McGrady had 15 points, Carl Landry added 12 points and eight rebounds and Houston stopped Portland's home winning streak at 12 games.
HAWKS 99, SUPERSONICS 90: Marvin Williams scored a career-high 33 points and visiting Atlanta extended Seattle's losing streak to a franchise-record-tying 13 games.
JAZZ 127, KINGS 113: Carlos Boozer made his first 13 shots and finished with 33 points to power Utah in Salt Lake City.
NUGGETS 100, NETS 85: Allen Iverson scored 30 points and Linas Kleiza added 23 as host Denver beat struggling New Jersey.
KNICKS 89, 76ERS 81: At Madison Square Garden, Zach Randolph had 16 points and 15 rebounds to help New York beat Philadelphia for the first time in five meetings.
WIZARDS 104, GRIZZLIES 93: Antawn Jamison had 24 points and 12 rebounds and host Washington rebounded from its worst defeat in more than six years to beat Memphis. The Wizards lost to Cleveland 121-85 on Wednesday.
RAPTORS 106, BUCKS 75: Chris Bosh scored 32 points, Carlos Delfino added 18 and Toronto used a decisive third-quarter run to beat visiting Milwaukee.
PISTONS 101, MAGIC 93: Richard Hamilton scored 32 points and Rasheed Wallace had 13 of his 15 in the first quarter, helping Detroit build a big lead that allowed the Pistons to coast to victory in Auburn Hill, Mich.
SUNS 110, CAVALIERS 108: Shawn Marion dropped in a baseline floater with 1.1 seconds left for his only field goal and visiting Phoenix burned Cleveland with a season-high 17 three-pointers.
BOBCATS 90, BULLS 77: Emeka Okafor scored 21 points and had 16 rebounds and Gerald Wallace added 21 points to help visiting Charlotte beat injury-depleted Chicago.
