Kobe powers Lakers past Mavs; Celtics up
LOS ANGELES—KOBE Bryant scored 28 points and Andrew Bynum had 18 points and 13 rebounds as the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Dallas Mavericks, 11082, Thursday night in a testy game in which five players were ejected.
The Lakers’ Matt Barnes and Steve Blake, and the Mavericks’ Jason Terry and Brendan Haywood were thrown out early in the fourth quarter following an altercation under the basket.
Los Angeles’ Shannon Brown was later ejected in a separate incident.
The late skirmish didn’t take away from the Lakers’ 16th win in 17 games, which helped them pull within 2 1/2 games of slumping San Antonio for the NBA’S top overall record.
Dirk Nowitzki had 27 points and 13 rebounds for the Mavericks, whose five-game winning streak ended.
In San Antonio, Rajon Rondo had 22 points and 14 assists and Paul Pierce scored 21 as Boston inched closer to first place in the Eastern Conference with a 107-97 win over San Antonio.
Kevin Garnett added 20 points for the Celtics, who won for just the second time in five games and moved within two games of Chicago for the No. 1 playoff seed in the East.
The Spurs remained stuck in an untimely tailspin. The team lost its fifth in a row and is in danger of falling out of first place in the Western Conference, where it’s been all season.
Tony Parker led the Spurs with 23 points and Tim Duncan, playing for the first time in five games after spraining his ankle last week, had 20 points and 13 rebounds.
Meanwhile, Dwyane Wade led the Miami Heat to a 113-101 win over the Toronto Raptors on Friday but admitted playing with a “heavy heart” after learning his adult nephew had been among those injured in a Chicago shooting spree.
Wade scored a game high 30 points but was understandably preoccupied with the fate of his unnamed nephew, one of six men shot in the incident in Chicago’s South side on Thursday.
“I played with a heavy heart,” Wade, 30, told reporters, adding he learned of the shooting following the Heat’s home win over the Dallas Mavericks late on Thursday.
COMPLETE RESULTS: Lakers 88, New Orleans 85; NY Knicks 91, Cleveland 75; Detroit 110, Charlotte 107 (OT); Philadelphia 95, Atlanta 90; San Antonio 112, Indiana 103; Memphis 99, Milwaukee 95 (OT)