>Kobe Bryant’s season-high 42 key as Lakers outlast Suns in 3OT

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LOS ANGELES — When the Los Angeles Lakers led Phoenix by 21 points in the third quarter, Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom were pretty sure their night would end quickly and tidily.

After three overtimes, 276 combined points and multiple heart-stopping moments, Bryant and Odom were just grateful to stagger out of Staples Center with a victory in a once-in-a-decade thriller.

Bryant scored a season-high 42 points, Ron Artest got five of his 18 points in the final 2 minutes of the third overtime, and the Lakers outlasted the Suns for a 139-137 win Tuesday night in an enormously entertaining rematch of last season’s Western Conference finals.

“I wish we would have put them away when we should have,” said Odom, who had a season-high 29 points and 16 rebounds. “But we found a way to win, and that’s all that matters.”

Pau Gasol added 24 points, including two tying free throws with 2.5 seconds left in the second overtime in the Lakers’ 13th win in 14 games since the All-Star break.

Channing Frye scored a career-high 32 points and hit three tying free throws with 1.1 seconds left to force double overtime for Phoenix, and Steve Nash had 19 points and 20 assists in the Suns’ fifth loss in seven games. Even worse, the Suns had to fly home after the game to host Toronto on Wednesday night.

“We have resolve. We play hard, and we compete like crazy,” Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. “We were playing a helluva basketball team tonight, a team that’s playing better than anybody in the league right now. They’re 13-1 since the All-Star break. We had a chance to do something special, and we didn’t quite get it done, so obviously it hurts.”

Both teams traded improbable last-second heroics in what turned into just the fourth triple-overtime game for the Lakers since they moved to Los Angeles. The Lakers hadn’t hosted a triple-OT game since 1969.

“I’m tired. I want to go home,” said Odom, who played over 55 minutes while filling in for suspended center Andrew Bynum. “I’m in the mood for pancakes.”

Phoenix rallied from an enormous deficit in the second half and another nine-point hole in the final 3 minutes of regulation, forcing OT on Grant Hill’s 3-pointer with 31 seconds left. Bryant and Vince Carter both missed last-second shots.

“I was trying to get it to Steve, and somehow the ball made it back to me and I made the shot,” said Hill, who scored 11 points before fouling out. “At that point, we had fought pretty hard to get back in the game. They had a big lead in the second half, and we managed to get it to overtime. As bad as it feels, we just have to regroup and get ready for our game tomorrow.”

Frye, who played 57 minutes, hit three free throws to even the first overtime when Odom intentionally fouled him an instant after his shooting motion began. Frye then added a go-ahead 3-pointer with 52 seconds left in the second OT.

Gasol coolly replied with two tying free throws for Los Angeles, and Bryant prevented Hill from taking a last-second shot, forcing triple OT.

“We told these guys Phoenix plays great when they come into our building,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “They had some good runs here over the years, but we eventually prevailed.”

Bryant hit a 3-pointer with 2:10 left in the third overtime before Artest made a steal and dunked — a rarity for the ground-bound defensive specialist — to put the Lakers up 135-132. Artest then made a fallaway jumper, and Carter missed a jumper, allowing Bryant to finish it off with a floating 11-footer with 14 seconds left.

“That was crazy, but we were just trying to hang on,” Artest said. “That was like a heavyweight fight, trading punches.”

Bryant and Artest came up with the big late baskets in the Lakers’ fifth straight victory, but the stakes were higher for the 10th-place Suns, who are scrapping to return the playoffs. The Lakers, sitting in second place in the West, already clinched their woeful division Sunday, taking a 14-game lead over the Suns.

Two days after playing a deliberate game in an 84-80 win over Portland, the Lakers ratcheted up their tempo to the Suns’ preferred speed — and it nearly cost them. The Lakers led 89-68 with 4:45 left in the third quarter, but Aaron Brooks’ 3-pointer cut the lead to 97-96 with 9:18 to play, completing a 28-8 run that began with three 3-pointers by Nash.

After Phoenix tied it at 101 with 6:53 left, the Lakers scored the next nine points before Phoenix’s 11-2 run to end regulation, capped by 3-pointers from Frye and Hill.

Bryant appeared to be moving fluidly on his sprained ankle after Jackson confirmed it was “much better” than last week.

The Lakers played their second straight game without Bynum, suspended for a flagrant foul on Minnesota’s Michael Beasley last week. His shotblocking inside presence was minimally important against the Suns, who play almost entirely on the perimeter.

Game notes

Brooks returned for the Suns after serving a one-game suspension Sunday for throwing a ball at an official. … Both teams wore their Spanish-language jerseys on Noche Latina. … Fans included Leslie Mann, Chris O’Donnell, Mindy Kaling and directors Oliver Stone and Michael Bay.

>Lakers give one away against the Heat, 94-88

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Eight-game winning streak ends with poor play down the stretch.The Lakers could have finally wished their fans a Merry Christmas, along with a belated apology for their behavior back in December.
Instead, they gift-wrapped a game Thursday and handed it to the Miami Heat.
The Lakers’ messy last two minutes led to Miami’s 94-88 victory and ended two streaks at once — the Lakers’ eight-game surge and the Heat’s five-game skid.
There was no getting even for a humiliating loss to Miami on Christmas Day after Kobe Bryant committed two late turnovers and missed two long three-point attempts, one from 28 feet at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Bryant wasn’t the only one at fault. Ron Artest missed an open layup attempt with 1:04 left.
Merry March, Miami.
Or as Andrew Bynum said in his own way, “We tricked it, for sure. We definitely had an opportunity to win this game and we gave it away.”
Their game Saturday in Dallas is more important to the Lakers, but this one was taken plenty seriously.
Bryant warned teammates the previous day not to stay out late in always-rocking South Beach and to make sure the game was the focus of their trip to Miami.
He had 24 points on a poor shooting night (eight for 21) and was still angry about it 30 minutes after the game. So he returned to the court and shot a slew of three-pointers and mid-range jumpers as three Heat ball boys fetched rebounds and fed him passes.
His Lakers T-shirt was wet with sweat by the time he finished. He played almost 40 minutes in the game and stayed on the court for more than an hour afterward.
“It’s my job,” Bryant said. “This is what you’re supposed to do if you’re not feeling comfortable with something and you feel like you can tweak some things.”
The game ended feebly for a team that had been playing so robustly, beating Portland, Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Atlanta on the road since the All-Star break.
Bryant started it by coughing the ball up to Dwyane Wade, who fed LeBron James for a dunk and 90-88 lead with 1:27 to play.
Then Artest missed his easy shot.
Then Bryant lost the ball out of bounds while going up for a shot down low.
Then he lofted an off-balance, 28-foot, three-point attempt.
By the time the misfires were added up, the Lakers had lost, though Coach Phil Jackson took the blame. As everyone knows, he rarely calls timeouts and often still has one or two in his pocket for end-of-game situations. This time, he called his last one with 46 seconds to play and the Lakers down by four.
“I really took responsibility for screwing up the end of the game,” he said. “I had no timeouts…”
As for Artest?
“I should have made the layup, but they grabbed my arm, I got hit in my head, and then, well, goaltending too possibly, right?” Artest said. “But that’s an excuse, man. I should have made the layup.”
The Lakers initially thought the Heat took the rebound with the ball still in the cylinder but stepped back from their thinking after conferring with their video coordinator.
The Heat couldn’t be happier, ending a five-game losing streak that tugged on the franchise and its celebrated trio of All-Stars.
“This was a very big game and we had everything riding on it,” said Heat forward Chris Bosh, who complained about his touches earlier this week and had 24 points on 10-for-17 shooting Thursday.
James had 19 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. Wade had 20 points.
The Lakers still have a chance to make their four-game trip highly successful. The overachieving Mavericks beckon.