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San Antonio Spurs 100, Los Angeles Lakers 83
San Antonio, TX Jan. 4 / Wire Reports -- It's a rare night when Bruce
Bowen dominates Kobe Bryant -- on offense.
Bowen, whose defensive skills keep him in the NBA, scored a career-high 24 points and helped limit Bryant to 17 as the San
Antonio Spurs beat the Los Angeles Lakers 100-83 on Tuesday night.
Afterward, Bowen just shrugged.
``I know it's a cliche, but it was just another game,'' said Bowen, ignoring the edgy rivalry that has grown between the
teams that have won five of the last six NBA titles. ``If it was for the championship, then I'd be talking about how great
it is.''
San Antonio matched its franchise record by making 15 3-pointers.
Brent Barry made four 3-pointers and finished with 14 points for San Antonio. Manu Ginobili had 13 and Tim Duncan scored 12
points and grabbed 15 rebounds.
The Spurs moved the ball well against the Lakers' defense, both in transition and in their set offense. San Antonio had 30
assists, 10 of them by Tony Parker, on its 40 baskets in the game.
``Everybody tries to make an effort to find guys open,'' said Parker, who scored only two points in 29 minutes. ``Kobe was
staying in the lane, so Bruce was wide open. I tried to find him because he was hot tonight.''
Bryant scored at least 40 points in the Lakers' three previous games, but Bowen held him to 12 below his average on 5-for-16
shooting.
``Tonight was a bit of a rude awakening,'' said Los Angeles coach Rudy Tomjanovich, whose team slipped to 16-13. ``We tried
our first option offensively and they were just too good defensively.''
Bryant pointed at the Lakers' ineffective defense.
``Every time we tried to get back in it, they hit another big shot,'' Bryant said. ``They just move the ball so well and
space you out. They play with such a purpose it's tough to keep up.''
Slava Medvedenko scored 16 points in the fourth quarter for Los Angeles.
Bowen made back-to-back 3-pointers in the game's opening minutes to give the Spurs a 12-6 lead. San Antonio made six of its
10 3-point attempts in the quarter, which ended with the Spurs ahead 32-18.
Tierre Brown made a jumper and Jumaine Jones a layup early in the second to make it 37-22, and then Los Angeles went without
a field goal for nearly seven minutes.
By the time Bryant hit a 4-footer with 2:45 left in the half, the Lakers trailed by 27 points.
Los Angeles shot 4-for-22 (18 percent) in the second quarter, while the Spurs went 10-for-19 (53 percent) in the period and
57.5 percent in the half.
San Antonio's shooting cooled in the second half, but the Lakers couldn't get closer than 20 until the final
minutes.
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