Lakers win 5th straight
LOS ANGELES – Kobe Bryant made most of the shots that mattered, which he didn’t view as any great accomplishment.
That’s because there was nary a hand in his face when he took them.
Bryant, celebrating what’s expected to be his first NBA MVP award, converted six of his franchise playoff-record 21 foul shots in the fourth quarter, and the Los Angeles Lakers held off the Utah Jazz 109-98 Sunday to begin the second round of the playoffs.
Bryant finished with 38 points, six rebounds and seven assists, and the Lakers made it five straight victories to begin the postseason after winning eight of their last nine regular-season games to earn the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.
“You’ve got to be able to knock those free throws down. They’re open looks,” said Bryant, who made his first 18 foul shots before missing two of his last five to finish 21 of 23. “It’s my responsibility to knock them down.”
The Lakers shot 38 of 46 from the foul line, while the Jazz went 22 of 30. The teams spent most of the final period going from one foul line to the other, with Los Angeles going 14 of 19 from the line and Utah 10 of 12. Twenty-four of the 60 personal fouls were called in the last 12 minutes.
“It’s an incredible night to have 23 foul shots,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “I know that Utah’s not going to be happy about it. We’ll probably see about half that in the next game, if not less. So for him to do that, it was our biggest scoring threat of the night right there.”
Utah coach Jerry Sloan said he didn’t have a problem with Bryant’s trips to the foul line.
“They called them, he shot them, that’s fine,” Sloan said. “I can’t do anything about that.”
Regarding his team’s defense, Sloan said: “It was very, very poor at best. (Fouls) are what you do when you try and bail out. I’d say that’s very poor defense.”
Game 2 will be played Wednesday night before the best-of-seven series shifts to Utah for Games 3 and 4.
Pau Gasol added 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists for the Lakers.
Mehmet Okur had 21 points and a career playoff-high 19 rebounds for the Jazz.