"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."

"I think the advantage for us is our front line against them," Fisher added, "so you want to call attention to (Carlos) Boozer and Memo (Okur) and Andrei (Kirilenko) and Matt (Harpring) down there being physical with what we feel like is a smaller team. I mean, Kwame Brown's a big body, and Bynum (is), but other than that our strength in the front court against their team."

The Lakers' strength, though, is Bryant — and rarely is it on display as impressively as it was Thursday.

To cap a 22-point first half, Bryant merely dribbled between his legs, drove past three Jazz defenders — C.J. Miles, Boozer and even Kirilenko — and rose for a soaring dunk the sort of which doesn't come quite as easily as it did before he underwent offseason knee surgery.

With that, the Lakers took a 53-41 advantage into the break.

Bryant started his amazing third quarter with another dunk, and ended it with a 20-foot jumper that had L.A. up by 22 at 91-69.

He was scoreless with a quick cameo in the fourth, but by then the damage was done.

As were the Jazz.

NOTES: Bryant's 30-point third quarter tied his own franchise record for points in a quarter, and tied for the fourth-highest in NBA history. George Gervin holds the all-time record, 33. ... Bryant finished 19-of-26 from the field. ... The loss left the Jazz 1-2 in their stretch of three games against NBA divisions leaders, with their lone win coming Wednesday vs. San Antonio. ... Even with the loss, the Jazz's 13-4 record remains tops in the NBA. ... Sloan remains three coaching victories shy of No. 1,000.

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com