Lakers 122, Celtics 96

The only comparison Lakers coach Phil Jackson could find Friday for Vladimir Radmanovic’s snowboarding injury came from Luc Longley, his former center with the Chicago Bulls and one of Jackson’s favorite players.

Longley suffered a separated shoulder - - the same injury as Radmanovic - - when he was thrown into a sandbar while bodysurfing off Hermosa Beach on an off-day. It wasn’t a prohibited activity in Longley’s contract but did cause him substantial embarrassment.

Jackson was able to joke Friday about Longley’s description of a ``mongrel wave’’ that caught him. They were close enough as player and coach that Jackson visited Longley in his hometown of Perth, Australia, during his year away from coaching.

(In fact, Jackson told a funny story the other week in Atlanta about heading into the high surf with Longley in an aluminum boat that started taking on water. It sounded more like a near-death experience than vacation fun.)

Since he mentioned Longley, it seemed like a fair question to ask if Jackson felt he could ever have that kind of relationship with Radmanovic, whose first season with the Lakers will not be remembered well.

``I hope so,’’ Jackson said. ``I have a good rapport with Vlade. We have a jocular relationship, I should say. Having made a space cadet comment about him, which is an archaic comment about somebody, it still lingers over him like a halo. I don’t want him to get strapped with that.’’

It’s clear that Jackson and the Lakers aren’t about to give up on Radmanovic, even though they do have the technical right to void his contract. It also will be interesting to see what punishment they decide on for their Shaun White-wannabe.

The Lakers could fine or suspend Radmanovic or they could simply dock him pay while he’s out injured. Radmanovic is due to make about $1.2 million for the 25 games he’s expected to miss in the next eight weeks.

Kobe Bryant was feeling good enough after Friday’s game to describe Radmanovic by his new nickname of ``Slalom.’’

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There’s nothing more demoralizing to another team than when Bryant goes on one of his scoring binges and nothing more energizing to his own team. Yet Bryant has made a point of getting his teammates involved at the expense of his own offense all season.

Bryant had 22 points in the first quarter but he pointed out that it made little difference on the scoreboard. The Lakers led just 34-30 after the quarter and didn’t start pulling away from the Celtics until they started trapping and coming up with steals on defense.

``I did my part there in the first quarter,’’ Bryant said, ``but the thing that we have to take away from this is that I can come out and have a 22-point quarter or a 30-point quarter, if we’re not stopping anybody, that’s not going to do anything.’’

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By Ross Siler
Staff Writer

Before he walked away from Wednesday’s loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, Kobe Bryant offered his exit strategy for the Lakers’ six-game losing streak, saying, ``You have to try to will yourself out of the stretch.’’

It fell to Bryant to provide that will Friday night as the Lakers broke through for their first victory since Feb. 5, beating the Boston Celtics 122-96. The Lakers led by as many as 26 points in the third quarter against a Celtics team that has lost 21 of 22 games.

Bryant finished with 38 points - - 22 of which came in a spectacular first quarter - - connected on 5 of 7 3-pointers, found his teammates for nine assists, matched a season-high with five steals and played only 31 minutes in the blowout.

``I spoke to Kobe before the game and said, `Don’t wait to get going in this game. Let’s go at them right away,’’’ Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. ``He carried the staff, so to speak, tonight.’’

``He gave me the marching orders and I carried them out,’’ Bryant said of Jackson. ``We fell behind the eight ball tonight and needed kind of a kick start and I was able to provide that.’’

There was a trickle-down effect from Bryant to the last man in uniform. All 11 players scored - - including seldom-used guards Shammond Williams and Aaron McKie - - and the Lakers held Boston to 66 points in the final three quarters.

Williams finished with six points and four assists and played 20 minutes. He joked on his way to a television interview afterward, ``I’m still the same dude from two weeks ago,’’ and later quipped that ``the ball felt like a foreign object’’ after playing so little.

Jackson brought out his binoculars to find both Williams and McKie and the end of the bench. He brought Williams in with two minutes left in the first quarter and started the second quarter with McKie and Williams in the backcourt and Bryant on the bench.

Where he normally would play Jordan Farmar and Sasha Vujacic, Jackson opted for the veterans instead of the kids Friday. McKie had appeared in only one other game this season and was most valued as an expiring contract heading into the trade deadline.

``I told the young players that they’ve had an opportunity during the course of the year to advance,’’ Jackson said, ``and right now for the sake of the team we need to have some of the veterans in there to do the things they know how to do because they’ve been on winning teams.

``Right now, that’s what we’re after. We’ve tried to develop players and bring them along and now it’s time to use the moxie that’s necessary as veterans to win it.’’

Williams hit his first jumper after checking in, then another to open the second quarter, and the Lakers wound up building a 13-point lead. In talking to reporters afterward, Williams thanked Jackson several times for giving him the chance to help the team.

The only thing worse than suffering through a long losing streak, Williams added, might have been doing it from the bench.

``It’s terrible because you’re sitting there like, `Wow, wow.’’’ Williams said. ``You just want to win. That’s what we’re all here for. We’re all here for the win. We’re not here for the money, we’re not here for the fame. We’re here for the win.’’

Jackson stressed the need during the losing streak to ``play for one another.’’ Bryant said Williams and McKie could serve as examples for the Lakers’ younger players.

``All season long, they haven’t complained, they haven’t whined,’’ Bryant said. ``They’ve just worked hard every single day. First ones at practice, last ones to leave sort of thing. . . .Their number got called tonight and they performed extremely well. ’’

After the Celtics broke to an 11-2 lead to start the game, Bryant took over the rest of the first quarter. He connected on four 3-pointers and scored 22 points, including 13 in a row, in what Jackson described as ``attack mode.’’

The Lakers didn’t break open the game, though, until the end of the first half, when they scored the last nine points to head into the locker room with a 65-54 lead. They made the run with their defense, which had been non-existent in recent games.

With Bryant setting the tone, the Lakers forced Paul Pierce into three consecutive turnovers, which Pierce then compounded with a technical foul. On one play, Bryant stripped Pierce, then lobbed a pass to Ronny Turiaf for an alley-oop basket.

``We have to be more aggressive,’’ Bryant said. ``We’re a team that gets their hands on balls and gets out in the passing lanes and knocks the ball loose. That’s what we have to do. We can’t just sit back and wait and play a passive type of a defense.’’

The good feelings were enough afterward that Bryant was able to joke about Vladimir Radmanovic’s new nickname - - ``Slalom’’ - - after Radmanovic came clean Friday about injuring his shoulder while snowboarding All-Star weekend.

``We know he feels bad about the situation,’’ Bryant said.