Lakers Roll, Jackson Ties Auerbach

[December 29, 2007]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Phil Jackson pulled even with Red Auerbach in regular-season victories, 5 1/2 seasons after tying the Boston Celtics coach for the most NBA championships won.

Kobe Bryant had 31 points and seven assists before sitting out the fourth quarter and the Lakers beat the Utah Jazz 123-109 Friday night, giving Jackson his 938th career win and a share of seventh place on the career list.

As fate would have it, Jackson will get a chance to pass Auerbach when the Lakers host the Celtics on Sunday night in the 177th regular-season meeting of the NBA's greatest rivalry. They've faced each other 10 times in the finals, with Boston winning the first eight and the Lakers prevailing in 1985 and 1987.

Jackson, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sept. 7, has won nine league titles as a coach. Three of them came with the Lakers and the other six with the Chicago Bulls - who won 72 games with Jackson at the helm in 1995-96.

Carlos Boozer led Utah with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Reserve guard Gordan Giricek, banished to the locker room by coach Jerry Sloan during a timeout in the second quarter of Utah's 98-92 loss at Charlotte on Dec. 19, rejoined his teammates after spending the last three games back in Salt Lake City. He spent the entire game on the bench.

The Lakers enjoyed their highest-scoring first half of the season, taking a 75-48 lead with 21 points from Bryant and 13 by Lamar Odom. Andrew Bynum scored eight points in the first 6:20 - including a pair of alley-oop dunks set up by Bryant and Derek Fisher - but went to the bench less than a minute later after picking up his second foul.

Kwame Brown, sidelined the previous 19 games because of ankle and knee sprains, played for the first time since Nov. 18 and was the first player off the Lakers' bench. He replaced Bynum with 5:28 left in the opening quarter, and Los Angeles outscored Utah 19-7 over the next 4 minutes to pull ahead 37-21.

From then on, it was no contest. The Lakers took their biggest lead, 91-57, on a layup by Trevor Ariza with 6:57 left in the third quarter and coasted to their fourth straight victory. They shot 54.4 percent from the field, raising their record to 9-0 when shooting at least 50 percent.

Ariza finished with 12 points as all of the Lakers' starters scored in double figures. Brown had seven points and five rebounds in 17 minutes.

Bryant, the two-time defending NBA scoring champ, has scored 30 or more points in three consecutive games for the first time this season after getting 39 at New York and 38 against Phoenix.

Fisher had 10 points and eight assists. It was his first game against the Jazz since Nov. 30, when Utah fans booed the 12-year veteran point guard constantly for leaving the team with three years left on a four-year contract and returning to the Lakers. The primary reason was so he and wife Candace could focus on getting his infant daughter Tatum the best medical care for the cancerous tumor in her left eye.

Jackson is still upset about the rude welcome Fisher received in Utah - especially under the circumstances of his daughter's condition, and the fact that he helped the Jazz reach the Western Conference finals in his only season there.

"I didn't like that at all. They made it sound like Utah wasn't qualified to handle the situation his child was in - like it's a backcountry spot," Jackson said. "There was a big deal made about him coming back there. He met with the owner, they were talking on the sidelines, and I think there was a lot of good will that went on with the organization - even though it was a difficult situation.

"I think the fans there had a different perspective on it entirely," Jackson added. "They felt like they'd been betrayed by him or something. That's the way they reacted - like he was a traitor. They live and die for their team in Utah, so I guess maybe that's part of what Utah is about."

Notes:@ Auerbach's final season as an NBA coach coincided with Utah coach Jerry Sloan's rookie season as an NBA player with the Baltimore Bullets. But he found it difficult to compare Auerbach and Jackson. "They didn't have the same people. If they coached all the same guys, maybe you could compare them. But they've both been blessed with great players, and that gives you a chance every night," said Sloan, whose 1,051 victories are fourth on the career list. "Phil's always done a great job coaching his teams. It's one thing to have great players, but it's another to be able to coach them and win with them."

[Associated Press; By ANNE M. PETERSON]

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