A quicker than usual post-game report as I face Tuesday deadlines on non-hoops work:
The Lead: The Lakers used strong defense from their pair of seven-foot post players and deft three-point shooting from secondary scorers (Ron Artest, Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom, Steve Blake, and Shannon Brown combining to go 8-15) to pull away from the Grizzlies in a physical, often intense, but not terribly elegant game.
In the late third quarter, Marc Gasol bloodied Ron Artest’s nose fighting for the ball and the game stopped for a couple of minutes as no one — Griz players, referees, coaches, Artest’s teammates — seemed quite sure how Artest would react. This was followed by a Rudy Gay technical, a hard foul on Gay by Kobe Bryant, and other bits of potential chaos.
The Grizzlies responded well to all of this, using a series of steals to pull within 78-76 at the midway mark of the fourth quarter. From there, the Grizzlies’ offense fell apart as the Lakers went on a 13-2 run before a couple of late Sam Young three-pointers brought the final deficit into single digits.
