'Smush' leads way as Lakers stop Jazz

Kobe Bryant, despite playing with strep throat, made a living at the free throw line and scored 35 points in the Los Angeles Lakers' 102-94 victory over the Utah Jazz on Monday night at EnergySolutions Arena.

But that's to be expected.

The real Jazz killer was the Lakers' less heralded guard, Smush Parker, who finished with 24 points and was 6-for-8 from 3-point range.

"Smush shot great," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson. "Smush had a big game today."

Parker helped the Lakers open up a first quarter lead by making all of his five shots — including three treys — and scoring 13 points.

After being fairly quiet in the second and third quarters, Parker scored six fourth-quarter points on a pair of 3-pointers — both with the scored tied. His 25-footer with 6:06 remaining gave the Lakers an 81-78 lead. After the Jazz rallied to knot the score again, he nailed another long bomb with 4:23 remaining to give L.A. an 85-82 advantage. The Jazz would never catch back up again.

"My teammates did a great job of finding me in open spots and I was able to knock down some jump shots," Parker explained.

Parker actually went into the game knowing there would be a good chance for him to get some open looks against the Jazz thanks to the Lakers' scouting report of Utah's defensive tendencies.

"We know that (the Jazz) like to close the middle up to penetration and we went over that in walkthrough this morning," said Parker. "So if there is penetration to the wing, the guy on the weak side is going to be open."

That open guy on the weak side, more often than not, was Parker.

Bryant, meanwhile, said he spent the entire day before the game in bed under the weather.

"I feel like ... bleep," Bryant said.

He was still strong enough to draw plenty of fouls — especially in the first half. He went to the foul line 19 times in the first half alone, making 16. That's the most ever for a Jazz opponent for a single half and just one fewer free throw for a half than the Lakers' all-time record of 20 set by Shaquille O'Neal — when teams were trying to foul him with the old "Hack-a-Shaq" strategy due to the big guy's poor free-throw percentage.

"If I can get around my defender before help gets there then I can get a good lane to the basket," Bryant said. "And I was able to draw some fouls."

Bryant had an off shooting night from the floor — making just 7-of-21 shots — but made up for it by making 21-of-24 foul shots. He missed his first two of the game but then made 21-of-22 the rest of the way.

"There was never a doubt about whether I would play or not," said Bryant. "If I was feeling a little wimpish, I got a good dose of 'Patton' today on AMC and that knocked the yellow belly right out of me."

But while Bryant, like Patton, may be a general, it was the foot soldier Parker that had just as much to do with the Lakers' success on Monday night.

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E-mail: lojo@desnews.com