Lamar Odom leads Lakers' rally in 115-110 win over the Warriors
By Mike
Bresnahan
Los Angeles
Times
January 12,
2011
Reporting from
Oakland -- Is it too late for Lamar
Odom?
The Lakers' sixth man desperately wants to
make the All-Star team for the first time in his 12-year career, a goal
that stuck with him even after his inevitable return to the bench when
Andrew Bynum came back.
There are plenty of forwards
to monitor in the Western Conference, but if voters want to gauge
Odom's importance to the Lakers, they can study Wednesday's game
against the Golden State Warriors.
The Lakers looked
fatigued and finished, but then Odom pushed them into a fourth-quarter
run that helped them pull out a 115-110 victory at Oracle
Arena.
Odom had 16 points in the final quarter as
the Lakers emerged from a frenzied game to win their sixth in a row. He
finished with 20 points, nine rebounds and an endorsement from Lakers
Coach Phil Jackson to make the All-Star team as a
reserve.
"Either that or as a starter," Jackson
said, knowing the Lakers' most consistent player this season will need
to make up ground quickly. "He'll need a lot of
votes."
Certainly not to be forgotten Wednesday was
Kobe Bryant, who had 39 points on 13-for-21 shooting and helped
counteract a 38-point outburst by Warriors guard Monta
Ellis.
Bryant steals the headlines, but Odom is
hoping to snare a weekend's worth of All-Star status. He was a distant
seventh in the most recent voting update for starters and probably
would have to make the Feb. 20 game at Staples Center as one of the
reserves who will be selected by NBA coaches.
"I
figure if I make that a goal to attain, even if I don't hit it, then I
help the team." Odom said. "At this point in my career, I'm being a
little selfish, or the most selfish that I've ever been, but I'm doing
it to help my team."
The Lakers (29-11) are in
second place in the West, 11/2 games ahead of Dallas but 41/2 behind
San Antonio.
Just when it looked like they were
ready to shed their label of losing too many games to teams with losing
records, they almost slipped up against the sub-.500
Warriors.
Nobody could stop Ellis, who played all 48
minutes, and the Lakers trailed going into the fourth quarter,
75-69.
But the Lakers also couldn't be stopped in
the fourth quarter, scoring a staggering 46 points in the final 12
minutes, Bryant scoring 17 on his own.
Before the
game, as NBA followers were still trying to break down the dominant
defensive effort the previous night in a 112-57 victory over Cleveland,
Jackson spoke kindly of the Lakers' recent attention to
defending.
His reasoning? The Lakers stopped
worrying about their personal stats and started dwelling on how to stop
teams.
The Lakers weren't nearly as impressive
defensively against Golden State (15-23), though the Warriors were
averaging a solid 101.7 points a game before
Wednesday.
Ellis stunned the Lakers early, scoring
20 points only a few minutes into the second quarter as the Warriors
led by as many as 14.
The Lakers wouldn't be denied
later, Odom coming alive after scoring only four points through three
quarters. He scored on a well-rounded smattering of layups and outside
shots.
Bryant was also impossible to stop down the
stretch, his three-pointer giving the Lakers a 105-99 lead with 43.9
seconds to play.
"Kobe's pretty good," Odom said,
smiling.
mike.bresnahan@latimes.com
twitter.com/Mike_Bresnahan
Copyright
