Bryant paces Lakers over Suns

Basketball Betting Lines

02/18/2012 - Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kobe Bryant had 36 points, nine rebounds and six assists, as the Lakers downed the Suns, 111-99, in the opener of a home-and-home at Staples Center.

Andrew Bynum added 17 points and 14 rebounds for the Lakers, who have won three straight and four of five. Matt Barnes also had 17 points while Derek Fisher chipped in 12 and Pau Gasol finished with 10 and 13 rebounds.

The Suns, meanwhile, have lost four in a row and five of their last six. They were led by Marcin Gortat's 21 points and 16 rebounds. Ex-Laker Shannon Brown had 15 points, Markieff Morris had 14 and Steve Nash scored 11 to go with 17 assists.

"Every time I take Grant (Hill) out of the game, Kobe explodes," Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. "Someone else has to step up. You can't turn the ball over 15 times in the first half. We had unforced turnovers. We didn't protect the ball tonight."

Bryant found himself on the bench to start the final quarter after helping the Lakers to a 87-73 advantage with 18 third-quarter points.

Phoenix, though, opened the fourth with a 10-6 run to pull the NBA's leading scorer from the pine. Gasol answered with an 11-footer, but the Suns continued to fight back. They scored the next seven points, capped by Brown's putback slam, to make it 95-90.

They would get no closer, however, as Fisher drained a short jumper before Bryant made a 12-foot turnaround and a lefty hook in the lane for a decisive 101-90 advantage with under three minutes to play.

"A good win for us. We made enough plays to win the game and scored more points that usual," Gasol said. "They made it close, but we didn't panic. It was a solid effort."

Earlier, the Suns rode Gortat's eight points and seven boards to a 25-21 lead after one. They were up 35-34 midway through the second when the Lakers' reserves scored 11 straight.

Barnes, Steve Blake and Troy Murphy all hit a three-pointer during the surge before Phoenix battled back to tie the game at 48. The Lakers, though, closed with a 9-0 run, getting five points from Fisher to take a 57-48 lead into the break.

Bryant, who scored a season-low 10 points in Tuesday's win over the Hawks, took over in the third. It was 69-63 when he scored 12 points during a 14-0 LA run, capping it with a trey for an 83-63 lead.

Game Notes

The Lakers' 111 points were a season-high...Bryant entered Friday averaging 28.7 points per game...Barnes' 17 points were a season-high...The Suns have lost seven of eight to the Lakers at Staples Center...The teams will meet Sunday night in Phoenix.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.

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