Lakers continue domination of Warriors

Feb 26, 2007, 2:05 GMT

Oakland, CA - Maurice Evans poured in a career-high 26 points and Kobe Bryant also had 26 to power the Lakers to a 102-85 rout of the Golden State Warriors.

Brian Cook ended with 11 points for Los Angeles, which has won two in a row since a six-game skid. The Lakers took advantage of poor shooting from the Warriors to beat them for a seventh straight time.

'The season is so long it's all about peaks and valleys,' Bryant said. 'Good teams are going to try to weather that storm and bounce back from it. That's what we're trying to do, we've had two games here where we've been able to get runaway wins and we've got a tough one tomorrow night, hopefully we can keep it going.'

Monta Ellis scored 22 and Jason Richardson 15 for the Warriors, who have lost two straight, both against the LA teams. On Saturday, Golden State fell, 103-90, on the road to the Clippers.

'We got cold. We stopped doing the things that made us successful like driving the ball,' Richardson said. 'Instead, we started settling for jump shots. We weren't being aggressive enough and after back-to-back to games, we didn't have our legs. We have to get better at attacking the basket.'

Andris Biedrins had 16 rebounds for Golden State, which shot just 2-of-19 from three-point range and was 9-of-21 from the foul line.

Ellis' jumper had the Warriors ahead 10-4 three minutes into the contest and it was 21-13 after two consecutive baskets by him with 4:45 remaining in the quarter.

However, the Lakers came back with seven straight, capped by an Evans dunk. LA ended the opening period on a 6-1 spurt for a 29-25 advantage.

Cook's turnaround jumper moved the margin to double digits for the first time at 38-28. That was part of 12 consecutive LA points, ended by Evans' three for a 44-28 margin with 5:33 left in the half.

The lead stood at 56-42 at intermission and Golden State had trouble cutting into its deficit, trailing 79-64 going into the fourth.

Bryant's shot from beyond the arc made it 84-64 just over minute into the final quarter and the Lakers were never challenged in the final period.

Game Notes

Bryant was 9-of-23 from the field...Andrew Bynum had 10 rebounds for the Lakers, who play at Utah Monday...Golden State is at Milwaukee Tuesday...The Lakers have won 14 of the last 16 versus the Warriors.

© 2007 The Sports Network

Game Notes

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