By JEFF LATZKE
AP Sports Writer
OKLAHOMA CITY — Ron Artest finally got to experience what
it’s like to be on the same team when Kobe Bryant finishes off a
win.
Bryant scored 31 points including the go-ahead jumper in
overtime as the Los Angeles Lakers got tested in their first
road game of the season, beating the Oklahoma City Thunder
101-98 on Tuesday night.
Bryant connected on a turnaround jumper from the left side with
2:29 to play to give the defending NBA champions a 99-97 lead
and then hit two free throws with 18 seconds remaining to push
the lead to three.
“When Kobe’s out there, he wants it,” said Artest, who signed
with the Lakers in the offseason. “That’s the great thing. He
wants it. It’s not like I have to really go get it.”
Bryant had been fighting through flulike symptoms earlier in the
day but his fever went down before the game started. He finished
9 for 22 and had seven turnovers, but came through when it
counted.
“I’ve been through a lot worse than this,” Bryant said. He felt
fortunate that he was able to play, considering the concerns
over swine flu, and expected to sleep and get fluids on the
Lakers’ trip to Houston for their first back-to-back of the
season.
The Thunder had two chances to tie it late, but Thabo Sefolosha
and Russell Westbrook each missed 3-pointers surrounding a pair
of missed free throws by Lamar Odom.
Bryant grabbed the ball after Westbrook’s miss and tossed it
toward the opposite end of the court to allow the final seconds
to run off the clock.
“I liked him sometimes and sometimes I didn’t like him,” Los
Angeles coach Phil Jackson said. “I think he was a little
dehydrated when he ran off at the end and let Sefolosha have a
wide-open 3. He made plays that he makes in ballgames. He got to
the free-throw line and made some free throws. He was able to
control the game at the end.”
Kevin Durant led Oklahoma City with 28 points but airballed a
pair of shots that could have given the Thunder the lead in the
closing minute of regulation and overtime.
He dribbled the ball to run down the final few seconds of the
fourth quarter before coming up empty on a deep 3-pointer from
the right wing with 2.7 seconds left, but Sefolosha stole the
Lakers’ ensuing inbounds pass to send the game to overtime.
Durant then had an airball on a 17-footer from the right side in
the final 30 seconds of overtime that could’ve put Oklahoma City
ahead again. Bryant was fouled intentionally and hit two free
throws to provide the final margin.
“We tell him he’s going to be in that situation a lot, and every
time you’re in that situation, you learn from it,” Thunder point
guard Kevin Ollie said of Durant. “I think he’s going to get
better and better as we go on through this season, and he’s
going to have the opportunity once again. I think he’s going to
step up and knock down the shots and we’re going to win games.
We’re going to ride it out with Kevin.”
Andrew Bynum added 22 points and 10 rebounds, Artest scored 20
and Odom had 13 points and eight rebounds while starting again
in place of the injured Pau Gasol.
Jeff Green had 18 points for Oklahoma City while Westbrook and
Sefolosha each scored 12.
“Going into overtime against a team like the Lakers is something
that we say we can pride ourselves on,” Sefolosha said. “Even
though we lost, we had a lot of opportunities to win this game.”
The Lakers have won their last 10 games against the Thunder
franchise, dating back to its days in Seattle.
Sefolosha hit a 3-pointer and a driving finger roll to eliminate
a five-point deficit for the Thunder in the final 3 minutes of
regulation and tie the game at 88.
Bryant answered at the other end with a turnaround jumper over
Sefolosha, but the Thunder got a chance to tie the game after
Etan Thomas – playing instead of starting center Nenad Krstic -
swatted Odom’s floater with 1 minute to play.
Green’s 12-foot jumper from the left wing tied it with 49.9
seconds left, and Bryant couldn’t connect on a desperation
3-pointer at the shot clock buzzer to give Los Angeles a lead.
Sefolosha tipped the ball away from Bryant, and he had to
scramble to regain possession before shooting.
Durant then aired out the first of his two potential
game-winners.
“We got stops. That’s what it boiled down to – getting stops,”
Bryant said.
Los Angeles opened the game on a 9-0 run, punctuated by Bynum’s
two-handed jam off an alley-oop lob from Bryant. The lead
reached 28-15 after Bryant finished a spurt of six straight
points with a 3-pointer from the right wing over Durant.
Durant scored 10 straight points in a stretch bridging the first
two quarters, and his two free throws put Oklahoma City ahead
for the first time at 41-40. The teams traded 8-0 runs just
before halftime to set up a closely-contested third quarter in
which they traded the lead 13 times.
Notes: Lakers coach Phil Jackson said Gasol had a “pretty good
workout” before the game but the team still had no additional
information to suggest he has a tear in his right hamstring. The
team has described the injury as a strain. … Jackson was asked
before the game if he had a fondness for Oklahoma’s wide open
spaces since he formerly lived in North Dakota, near the Montana
border. “Not really fond. There’s some sunsets and sunrises that
are pretty nice. The wind is aggravating if you live out here,
there’s no doubt about it.”
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