After giving up leads of 15 points and 14 points in their previous two games, the Los Angeles Lakers came within a 3-point miss by Kelenna Azubuike of squandering an 18-point advantage to the Golden State Warriors.
The Lakers held on for a 114-106 victory Thursday night as Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol each scored 21 points to help complete Los Angeles' third four-game season sweep of the Warriors in four years.
Now the defending Western Conference champions begin their longest trip of the season - seven games - on Saturday night at Chicago , and don't play again at Staples Center until April 3 against Houston .
"Jeanie wants me to have my suits sent ahead and not even pack," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said in reference to girlfriend, Jeanie Buss, the Lakers' executive vice president of business operations. "But I don't feel that luxurious about my life yet. I still need to pack my own bags."
Jackson then packed away his trademark bemused grin and got serious.
"It's a road trip that we have to play every game with that mentality of playing consistent conservative basketball," the Hall of Fame said.
Bryant feels that a long road trip is just what the Lakers need to prevent them from becoming too complacent before the playoffs begin.
"It's good that it is coming up at this time of year," said Bryant, who committed five of the team's 22 turnovers. "If you go out on the road, basically it's us against the world, so to speak. So we are able to bond and connect. These type of trips build great momentum."
The Lakers, who haven't lost consecutive home games since a three-game stretch last March, bounced back from a 94-93 defeat to Philadelphia on Tuesday night in which they blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead and lost on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Andre Iguodala.
On Sunday, they gave up a 15-point third-quarter lead against Dallas , and trailed by six in the fourth before rallying for a 107-100 win.
Jackson acknowledged that his team is far from being playoff-ready on defense - something that cost them in last year's finals against Boston when they blew a 24-point lead at home before losing Game 4."We talked about that yesterday," Jackson said. "We had a list of seven items up there on the boards that were haunting us, starting with turnovers in transition plays and offensive rebounds, which are dead-giveway types of things, and understanding our rotations that we have to do when we get into screen-roll situations."
Thursday's victory was the Lakers' 31st at home, eclipsing last season's total, and kept them a full game behind Cleveland for the NBA's best record and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs with 14 games remaining.
Monta Ellis scored 27 points and Azubuike added 25 for the Warriors, who have lost 19 of their last 22 meetings with the Lakers and are 2-18 at Staples Center since the arena opened in 1999."There's nothing we can say. we left it all on the court," Ellis said. They made more good plays than we did down the stretch."
The Lakers took a 77-59 lead on Derek Fisher's 3-pointer with 3:34 left in the third quarter. The Warriors scored the next 12 points to make it a six-point differential. But Sasha Vujacic scored nine of his 12 points in the fourth quarter, and Lamar Odom converted a pair of 3-point plays 66 seconds apart to give Los Angeles a 101-86 lead with 5:59 to play.
Golden State then went on a 16-4 run capped by Jackson 's fastbreak layup with 2:40 remaining, after off one of six Lakers turnovers in the final quarter. But Azubuike missed a 3 that would have tied the game, and that was the Warriors' last gasp.
Bryant who did not shoot any free throws against Philadelphia, didn't attempt a foul shot against the Warriors until he completed a three-point play that gave the Lakers a 105-95 lead with 3:49 to play.
In a game that pitted the league's top rebounding team against the worst, the Lakers held a 50-42 advantage. Gasol had 14 boards and Odom had 12, along with 16 points.
Warriors leading scorer Stephen Jackson returned to the lineup, scoring 10 points and shooting 5-for-17. He sat out Tuesday's victory over the Clippers because of an automatic one-game suspension he received for getting his 16th technical foul of the season in Sunday's loss to Phoenix .
Notes: Former Lakers coach Pat Riley, currently president of the Miami Heat, turns 64 years old on Friday. "Pat turning 64 isn't a scary thing, it's a beautiful thing. And it's even better now that he's not coaching anymore - even though I know he misses it," said Magic Johnson, Riley's point guard on four NBA championship teams in Los Angeles. "It probably would have been scary if he was still in there coaching because, from my point of view, it was taking its toll on him. So this is the best for him - to just be the team president and make the basketball decisions. He and I will always be linked together. One of the highlights of my life was when he went into the Hall of Fame in September and we reflected back on all the memories and the good times we all shared together. I'm happy that he's turning 64, looking good and feeling good." ... Jackson, who has coached the Lakers to three championships, is four games away from passing Riley's franchise record for games coached (727). ... Warriors coach Don Nelson, whose 1,304 regular-season wins are second all-time behind Lenny Wilkens, is two losses away from 1,000. Nelson has 274 more wins than Jackson .
Five-star prospect from Southwest Atlanta Christian School, making the McDonald's All-America team as well as third-team Parade and EA Sports All-America teams following his senior year ... Rated as high as No. 6 nationally (Hoop Scoop) and was the top-rated point guard in the country according to Rivals, No. 3 by Scout.com ... Final PrepStars.com ranking was No. 20.
A 3.5 GPA student who was a member of the Future Business Leaders of America and the Senior Beta Club ... Played in the summers with the Atlanta Celtics AAU team.
