Balanced Lakers drown Bulls; Sacramento nets New Jersey

CHICAGO: The Los Angeles Lakers put on a strong team performance to register a 103-91 road win over the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday, the visitors getting double-digit tallies from six players.

With Kobe Bryant struggling through a 7-for-19 shooting night while playing with a troublesome groin, Sasha Vujacic came off the bench to score 19 points and lead a balanced attack.

"People call us a one-man (Bryant) team and we don't care as long as we're winning ball games," Lakers forward Luke Walton said.

"If we start losing, then we'll get mad and we'll get up in arms about it."

Bryant finished with 18 points, Lamar Odom had 17 points and 16 rebounds and Andrew Bynum also had a double-double, with 12 points and 10 rebounds to go along with four blocks.

"As eye-popping as Kobe's numbers are, the reason they have the record they are playing well," Bulls coach Scott Skiles said.

Luol Deng had 26 points and seven rebounds and Kirk Hinrich 17 points, eight assists and five rebounds for the Bulls, who were talking to the Lakers about acquiring Bryant before the start of the season.

"Tonight we survived a rather poor shooting game," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who coached the Bulls to six NBA titles with Michael Jordan leading the way.

"We did it by making defensive stops and getting turnovers in the process."

Skiles added: "We gave up 45 points off turnovers and second-chance points. At some point if the game goes in that direction, with 48 minutes and all the possessions, it is going to catch up with you.

"We made it close, we made enough plays to do that, during the two-minute span we had a couple turnovers and they had a couple of offensive rebounds and that was it."

At New Jersey, John Salmons scored a career-high 31 points and set up teammate Francisco Garcia's late go-ahead three-pointer as the Sacramento Kings scored a 106-101 road victory over the New Jersey Nets.

Brad Miller added 23 points and 10 rebounds and Ron Artest 20 points for the Kings, who captured only their second road win of the season (the first last Friday in Philadelphia).

Richard Jefferson scored 36 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Nets, who have lost six of their last seven games and dropped eight of their last 10 at home.

At Los Angeles, Chris Bosh scored 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds and the visiting Toronto Raptors held the Los Angeles Clippers to 28 second-half points to record an 80-77 victory.

The nine rebounds made Bosh Toronto's all-time leader on the boards, with 2,847 as he passed Antonio Davis.

Chris Kaman had his 20th double-double of the season for the Clippers with 12 points and 16 rebounds.

Agencies

(China Daily 12/20/2007 page24)