Kobe rallies Lakers past Grizz

Kobe Bryant scored 36 points and was instrumental in a fourth quarter rally that led the Los Angeles Lakers past the Memphis Grizzlies 105-96 at the FedEx Forum on Monday night.  The Lakers snapped a short two game losing streak and improved their record to 22-5 on the season.  That’s the third best mark in the NBA behind Eastern Conference juggernauts Boston (26-2) and Cleveland (23-4).

The Lakers looked sluggish in the first half, and headed to the locker room at halftime trailing 57-49.  A third quarter surge cut the Grizzlies lead to 3 heading into the final period but Los Angeles was unable to chip into that lead and with just over 3 minutes left in the game trailed by 5.  That’s when Kobe Bryant took over, sparking the Lakers to 17-3 run to end the game.  Kobe scored 10 points during the decisive stretch including an emphatic fast break dunk as the game ended.   Afterwards, Kobe focused more on the come from behind victory rather than the lethargic play that left his team in a hole to begin with:

"We know what we want to do. For a young team, they are still kind of searching for what that identity is going to be.For us, we've been there, done that. So, it's just a matter of how well we executed."

Pau Gasol added 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists in the first game he’s played against his old team in Memphis since the February 2008 trade that sent him west.  His brother Marc headed to the Grizz as part of the deal, and although Pau was pleased with the victory showed little pleasure in beating his younger brother and former teammates:

"Somebody had to lose tonight, right? I’m happy we came out victorious because we needed this win extremely bad to continue to pursue our goals. But I'm sorry that on the losing end were the Grizzlies and my brother."

Rudy Gay led Memphis with 23 points and felt that his team had no answer for Kobe’s late game dominance:

"Obviously, Kobe hit a big shot, and we never really responded to that. I think we took a stride, but then again, you can't be happy with a loss."

Memphis dropped to 9-18 with the loss and will head to Dallas on Tuesday night before taking a few days off for Christmas.  They’ll return to action on Friday and Saturday, hosting the Indiana Pacers before traveling to San Antonio for a matchup with the Spurs.  Los Angeles plays at New Orleans on Tuesday before returning home for their heavyweight confrontation with the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day.