LOS ANGELES Kobe Bryant scored 24 points, hitting 14 of 15 free throws, and the Los Angeles Lakers pulled away with a dominating third-quarter run for a 122-99 victory over the Indiana Pacers

LOS ANGELES Kobe Bryant scored 24 points, hitting 14 of 15 free throws, and the Los Angeles Lakers pulled away with a dominating third-quarter run for a 122-99 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night.Andrew Bynum added 16 points and Pau Gasol had 14 points and 16 rebounds for the defending NBA champions, who fell behind early before improving to 14-0 against the Pacers at Staples Center.Jordan Farmar scored 19 points, including 10 in the fourth when he ran the offense while Bryant rested his myriad of injuries.The Lakers won their third in a row heading into a stretch of three road games in four days, capped by Sunday’s contest at Orlando.

Troy Murphy had 17 points and 13 rebounds, Dahntay Jones scored 16 points, Josh McRoberts had 15 and Earl Watson finished with 10 assists for the Pacers. They dropped to 7-24 on the road and have lost eight of their last 10 overall.

Bryant nearly matched his career average of 24.9 points against Indiana, though most of his offense came at the line. He was just 5 of 14 from the field, missing all four of his 3-point attempts.Bryant hit a 21-foot fadeaway to beat the halftime buzzer, keeping Los Angeles ahead 60-54.That momentum carried into the third, when the Pacers closed to 62-61 before the Lakers took over. They went on a 35-10 run that produced a 98-71 lead heading into the fourth.Derek Fisher’s 3-pointer gave the Lakers the game’s first double-digit lead, 75-65. Ron Artest and Lamar Odom hit consecutive 3-pointers, then Shannon Brown made two straight 3s before Farmar capped the burst with a fast-break slam dunk.

The Pacers dissolved in a series of miscues, with their seven turnovers leading to 10 points. Bynum and Brown came up with big blocked shots, too. Indiana’s offense broke down, with the Pacers making 7-of-20 shots in the quarter.Fans began pouring out of Staples with nearly 6 minutes remaining. During a timeout, Odom and Gasol gazed at the overhead scoreboard checking out other NBA scores. Bryant spent the rest of the game on the bench along with the other starters.After trailing most of the opening quarter, the Lakers got a boost from Brown, Farmar and Adam Morrison in the second. Their early scoring put the Lakers back in front, and Gasol and Bryant kept them there with eight points apiece.Still, the Pacers were better at the line and from 3-point range in the first half, with Murphy already exceeding his scoring average by the break.

NOTES: The Pacers haven’t beaten the Lakers in Los Angeles since Feb. 14, 1999, when the Lakers still played at the Forum. … The Lakers’ 14-0 mark at Staples includes three playoff wins against Indiana Los Angeles reached 100 points for the first time since defeating Golden State 104-94 on Feb. 16.(AP)

Los Angeles Lakers vs Sacramento Kings 109-108

LOS ANGELES With apologies to Jerry West, the Lakers’ modern-day “Mr. Clutch” did it again.Kobe Bryant hit yet another buzzer-beating 3-pointer and finished with 39 points as the defending NBA champions overcame a 20-point deficit to beat the Sacramento Kings 109-108 on Friday night. The last time the Lakers won a game in which they trailed by 20 or more points was Dec. 12, 2006, when they erased a 21-point deficit in a 112-101 double-overtime win against Houston at Los Angeles.”It looked like they went into a zone coverage on the inbounds pass, and that side was wide open,” said Bryant, averaging 35.7 points in his last 10 games.”It was just a matter of me getting to that spot with enough time to get a shot off. Phil drew up a play for a 3. He wanted me to get a good look and knock it down. I think he wanted to get out of here.”

Lamar Odom had a season-high 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the NBA-leading Lakers (26-6). Pau Gasol had 17 points, 16 rebounds and four assists – one of which set up Bryant’s clutch basket from in front of the Sacramento bench.”Kobe’s shooting the ball at a high percentage,” Gasol said. “But he’s not always going to shot like that. We understand that, and I think he understands that, too. But when he’s feeling it and the shots are going down, he’s going to keep shooting.”Spencer Hawes had a career-high 30 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Kings, Omri Casspi scored 23 points, and Beno Udrih added 19 points and 13 assists.

“I am so proud of our team – but at the same time, it’s disappointing,” Sacramento coach Paul Westphal said. “We’ve played well enough to beat those guys twice, but they have a knack at the end of games. We got everything we needed, performance-wise, from everybody that played, and we couldn’t close it out. That’s one of the things that makes the Lakers so good. Kobe is an unbelievable player, no question about it.”One night after scoring a season-high 44 points and getting a season-best 11 assists, Bryant added another chapter to his Hall of Fame resume. This miracle shot came exactly four weeks after his off-balance 3-point buzzer-beating bank shot that pulled out a win over the Miami Heat at Staples Center. On Dec. 16 at Milwaukee, Bryant hit a 15-footer as time expired in overtime to give the Lakers a 107-106 win.

“These players – I don’t know how they get themselves into those positions, but they do an unbelievable job of hitting shots that are remarkable shots, marvelous shots,” coach Phil Jackson said. “He’s right there with Michael in that kind of breath you look at.”The Lakers came out as flat as half-empty champagne bottles left over from New Year’s Eve, shooting 37 percent from the field in the first half and trailing 64-49 at intermission. Derek Fisher was the biggest offender, missing nine of 10 shots in the half while the Kings had the highest-scoring half by a Lakers opponent this season.

Fisher, who had six points, played 9 minutes in the third quarter without taking a shot, then sat out the entire fourth quarter.The sellout crowd let the Lakers feel their pain, booing them loudly after Jon Brockman’s layup gave Sacramento a 38-23 lead with 9:12 left in the second quarter. The Kings built the lead to 20 at 52-32 with a 3-pointer by Ime Udoka that capped a 26-9 run with 5:06 left in the half.

“I think we kind of took the pedal off,” Hawes said. “We knew they were going to make a run. It was inevitable. We knew that we couldn’t sit up by 20 points the whole game. And they chipped away and chipped away to put themselves in a position to win it at the end. That’s why he’s Kobe. He makes big shots at big times.”In their previous game, Tuesday night at Staples Center, the Lakers fell behind by 15 points to Golden State and gave up 60 points in the first half before pulling out a 124-118 win.

NOTES: According to Jackson, it looks as though Ron Artest will be back playing by early next week, following the fall at his home on Christmas night that caused a concussion, a deep cut on his left elbow and a slight loss of memory. “He’s improved significantly in the last two days, and optimistic that he’ll be able to practice soon – probably not a full-out practice with contact tomorrow, but will have non-contact activity with the team,” Jackson said. “There’s a number of checks they go through with concussions, like speech patterns. But with Ron, that doesn’t work.” … This was only the third time in the last 36 years that the Lakers played on New Year’s Day. Their overall record on Jan. 1 is 9-6. … It was the first time the Kings played on New Year’s Day since the vagabond franchise moved from Kansas City to Sacramento in 1985-86. They are 11-9 overall on this date (0-3 in K.C., 4-4 in Cincinnati and 7-1 in Rochester). … With 24,800 career points, Bryant is 16 points away from overtaking Patrick Ewing for 15th place.(AP)

LOS ANGELES lakers vs Utah Jazz 101-77

Kobe Bryant

LOS ANGELES Kobe Bryant scored 27 points, Pau Gasol had 19 points and 12 rebounds, and the Los Angeles Lakers rolled off 19 consecutive points in the fourth quarter of their 10th straight victory, 101-77 over the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night.Ron Artest scored 17 points for the Lakers, who improved to an NBA-best 17-3 by holding the Jazz to six points and two field goals in a comically one-sided fourth quarter.
After leading by just two points entering the fourth, Los Angeles held the Jazz scoreless for more than six minutes while getting points from five players.

Deron Williams scored 17 points for the Jazz, who couldn’t manage a field goal in the first 7:25 of the final period of their 13th consecutive loss to the Lakers at Staples Center, counting six losses in the past two playoffs.

Mehmet Okur and C.J. Miles scored 14 points apiece for Utah, which managed just two field goals in the fourth quarter on 2-for-18 shooting.

Andrew Bynum scored 14 points for Los Angeles, which forced two shot clock violations by the Jazz during that fourth quarter stretch while getting eight points from Jordan Farmar, the inconsistent backup guard. Williams’ jumper with 4:35 to play was the Jazz’s first field goal of the period, and they didn’t get another until Miles’ basket in the final minute.

Carlos Boozer had 11 points and 12 rebounds for the Jazz, failing to score at least 21 points for the first time in nine games. Utah, which hasn’t beaten the Lakers at Staples Center since Jan. 1, 2006, rebounded from a loss to lowly Minnesota with a win over San Antonio on Monday, but its fourth-quarter woes in Los Angeles led to just the Jazz’s third loss in 11 games.

Los Angeles’ winning streak is its longest in a single season since winning 10 straight in February 2008.

Bryant played after skipping the morning shootaround, telling the Lakers he was shaken up after a home-invasion robbery occurred in his family’s gated community in Orange County last night, leading to a police standoff.

The Lakers are one game away from completing an undefeated six-game homestand, which concludes Friday with a visit from Minnesota. Los Angeles’ lofty record is little surprise after an exceptionally generous schedule featuring 17 of its first 21 games at home, but the Lakers are on the road for all but nine of the following next 28 games.

Most of the Lakers’ victories have been easy, with the notable exception of last Friday’s one-point win over Miami on Bryant’s self-acknowledged lucky 3-pointer at the buzzer. Coach Phil Jackson felt a few close games would help his team’s late-game execution later on, and they got another test of their tenacity against Utah – until the fourth quarter, that is.

Los Angeles had been outstanding in the middle two periods during its winning streak, repeatedly pulling away from its opponents to render the fourth quarter fairly meaningless. But Utah took the lead in the second quarter and held it largely through superior offensive rebounding until late in the third, when Bryant and Lamar Odom shook the Lakers from their slumber.

NOTES: The teams meet again on Saturday in Salt Lake City. … Longtime Lakers player and assistant coach Kurt Rambis will face the Lakers on Friday night for the first time since taking over the Timberwolves. … Denzel Washington, Jack Black, Emmanuelle Chriqui and poker players Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth were at courtside.