LOS ANGELES — The gamesmanship started last week, when Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson ripped the refs in last Friday's loss to the Jazz, and continued right up until game-time for the rematch.

All the shenanigans Jackson could muster, however, could not overshadow the flat-out game Lakers star Kobe Bryant brought Thursday night to the Staples Center.

Bryant finished with a season-high 52 points in L.A.'s 132-102 victory over the league-leading Jazz, including 30 that came on 9-of-9 shooting in the third quarter alone.

The second 50-plus-point showing of the season against Utah — Milwaukee's Michael Redd had 57 back on Nov. 11 — more than made up for Bryant's frustrations Friday.

Then, with Andrei Kirilenko assigned to guard him in the late going, Bryant missed all three of his final-quarter shots as the Jazz beat the Lakers 114-108.

This time he didn't even need to play in the fourth quarter.

Bryant's show easily trumped that by Jackson, who complained about the officiating in what he called a "roughhouse" game one day after Utah beat L.A. at EnergySolutions Arena.

The comments resulted in a $25,000 fine from the NBA, one current Jazz guard and longtime Laker Derek Fisher suspects his former coach did not mind forking over.

"That's him," Fisher said. "I mean, he's always in playoff mode, and tweak mode, and push-button mode. So, it's not a surprise ... knowing that we were coming there in five or six days.

"He probably can write that off as a business expense," Fisher added with a laugh. "You know, it's part of his job."

Perhaps it was the same when Jackson complained prior to Thursday's game that the Jazz were warming up on the side of the court the Lakers usually do, and that Utah preferred to finish the game — it's visitor's option — running its offense as same side as its own bench.

Jackson dubbed it a sign of weakness, to which — when relayed by a TNT television reporter — Jazz coach Jerry Sloan simply shrugged and said, "That's okay."

"I like the offense coming down at the end of the game," Sloan said. "I think players have a better chance to see what we're trying to do — to see what I'm trying to do. That's just always the was I've felt."

Jackson's big beef last week centered on Andrew Bynum, and insinuated the Jazz's big men were allowed to have their way with the young Lakers center.

The comments, Fisher seemed to suspect, were carefully crafted.

"It's very calculated," he said, comparing the stunt to the time Jackson complained during a playoff series about noisy cowbells in Sacramento — all part of an effort to attract attention away from his own players. "He's always got the motor running."