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Monday, Dec. 20 7:00pm ET
Lakers earn seventh straight win | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
BOSTON (AP) -- Shaquille O'Neal was everywhere -- except the Los Angeles bench. O'Neal had 34 points and 20 rebounds, playing all but 2:17 of the game Monday night as the Lakers earned their seventh consecutive victory with a 99-90 win over the Boston Celtics. "I've been playing big minutes. It's fine with me," O'Neal said. "I know how to pace myself." O'Neal played the entire first quarter and had seven rebounds. He scored eight points in the second quarter, when he took a 1:24 break -- his only real rest of the game. In the third, he had 10 points, seven rebounds and a 5.5-second break at the end while Derek Fisher shot a free throw. And in the fourth quarter he had 11 points and four rebounds before sitting out the last 47.4 seconds of garbage time. Other than that, Lakers coach Phil Jackson pretty much let his stars play. Wouldn't you? "He asked out at some point in the third quarter," Jackson joked. "I gave him 5.5 seconds." Kobe Bryant, who played 45 minutes, added 27 for the Lakers, who were playing their fourth game in five days. Boston lost its sixth consecutive game despite 24 points from Antoine Walker, and 21 points and 10 rebounds from Kenny Anderson. The five Celtics starters used 27 of their 30 fouls trying to guard O'Neal, who went 8-for-17 from the free throw line. "There's nothing you can do, he's so strong," Celtics forward Eric Williams said. "He's pretty much bulked up this year. He knows people are going to be hacking and fouling him." O'Neal's 46 minutes wasn't even a season high; he played 47 minutes against Portland on Dec. 3. He is averaging just under 39 minutes per game this year, which would be his highest total since 1993-94, his second season in the league. "I'm not tired from playing," he said. "I'm tired from getting beat up." The Celtics had just their second sellout of the season as fans came to see the longtime rivals, who didn't play last season because of the NBA lockout. It was 76-all before Derek Fisher hit a 3-pointer from the left corner with 7:07 to play to put the Lakers up for good. On the next possession, Bryant followed a behind-the back dribble with a nice scoop shot, and Boston never got closer than three points after that. O'Neal was 13-for-20 from the floor to help the Lakers improve their NBA-best record to 22-5. He even managed to get along with the referees on a day that he was fined $10,000 for his criticism of officials last week. And it's not that the referees were keeping a low profile: The Lakers were hit with two five-second inbounding violations, a 10-second halfcourt violation and a three-second lane violation. There also was a double foul, followed by a jump ball violation. The Lakers led 39-26 with 5:23 left in the first half before Boston mounted a 17-5 run to close the half, then added the first 12 points of the third quarter -- eight of them from Walker -- to take a 55-44 lead. O'Neal made a short jumper with 7:49 left in the third to give Los Angeles its first points of the second half. Anderson had 14 points in the second quarter alone, and 17 points and five assists by the half. But the rest of the Celtics were 10-for-36 from the floor in the first half. The Celtics led 65-52 with 4:32 left in the third quarter before Los Angeles scored the next 11 points, nine of them from O'Neal and Bryant. Bryant hit a turnaround jumper for the first basket of the fourth quarter to tie it at 71.
Game notes | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard LA Lakers Clubhouse Boston Clubhouse RECAPS LA Lakers 99 Boston 90
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