Chasing!

Timberwolves gave us a merry
chase on Friday evening at
Staples Center..The Minnesota
team, coached by former Laker
assistant coach, Kurt Rambis,
has indeed been busily shoring
up the younger and more inexperienced
team he has taken on for himself.
Kobe Bryant did play though, even with
a sprained and swollen left ankle to deal
with. The teams were tied and Pau Gasol
made a noticeable jump shot to help us
gain the lead. Moments later Lamar Odom
made a 3-pointer to help us get further ahead.
With Kobe being willing, able and ready, our
team felt more in control and took full advantage
of the situation, even with Kobe's shots missing
the baskets at times as his timing was a bit off.
He took a seat on the bench to start the second
half with Shannon Brown taking his spot as
starting shooting guard. All the while Kobe was
fidgeting to get back into the game and finally
did re-enter when the Lakers began trailing the
Timberwolves 62-61. There was 6 minutes and
16 seconds left then in the third quarter. Kobe
did finally come back on to the court and promptly
assisted on Ron Artest's 3-pointer that then gave
the Lakers a 64-62 lead.
Andrew Bynum was experiencing some unease
with fluid build up on his right knee. He appeared
headed for yet another one of his notable games
in superb play though, scoring 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting
& grabbing 8 rebounds in the first half. He and Gasol
dominated the paint early on with Gasol scoring 17
points however the teams were tied, when in the fourth
quarter after a forearm shiver to a driving Michael
Beasley (Minnesota), with 6 minutes and 16 seconds
remaining in a most taut contest, the play was halted with
Bynum being ejected from the game altogether with
referee's calling for a flagrant-2 foul. It really ignited
some passion for the Lakers and they pushed ahead
to eke out a 106-98 victory in front of a sell-out
crowd of 18,997 spectators! Bravo!
So now the Lakers have moved one game ahead of the
Dallas Mavericks who lost Friday to the San Antonio
Spurs, in the battle for second place in the Western
Conference standings. The Lakers are 49-20 and
the Mavericks are 48-21. San Antonio is the league-
leading team with 55-13. Now the buoyancy begins!
Babs Wells