
Stars shine in season opener
Kobe, Odom lead Lakers past Kings in the 4th
Los Angeles Lakers 133-122 Sacramento Kings
( 21-33 , 32-25 , 37-33 , 43-33 )
[
Lakers Boxscore][
Sacramento Boxscore]
Player Of The Game : Kobe Bryant (LAL) 43PTS, 18/32FG, 3AST
Away Top Performer : Lamar Odom (LAL) 25PTS, 8REB, 4AST
Home Top Performer : Shareef Abdur Rahim (SAC) 30PTS, 3REB, 2AST
1st Half
Lakers couldn't stop Sacramento's strong start. Artest scored 11 in the third but got in foul trouble early. Oddly, those 11 points were the only ones he would score whole nigft. Kobe started off cold as did Odom. Sacramento controlled the tempo with lots of fast break buckets. Bryant and Odom started to heat up in the middle of the second quarter while the whole team buckled up on defense, which carried the Lakers trailing by only five at the half.
2nd Half
A high scoring game was in the making with both teams trading baskets all night long. The last quarter opened strangely, Kwame Brown felt lucky and drained a three pointer. Artest collected his fifth foul early and that limited his contribution. Abdur-Rahim, who had played a great game also picked up his 5th and limited his efforts on both ends when his team needed it the most. Suddenly Sacramento couldn't keep up and Lakers took control. The final exlamation mark was presented in the form of a 360 breakaway dunk from Kobe with less then a minute left in the game.




The GOATS:
G.O.A.T. : Kobe Bryant (LAL) Player Of The Game
Goat : Ron Artest (SAC) 11PTS, 8MINS, 5FOULS
Lakers' next game is an away game against the Los Angeles Clippers.