NBA: Lakers beat Thunder for 11th straight time

LOS ANGELES — Kobe Bryant scored 26 points, including an astonishing basket from behind the backboard, and the Los Angeles Lakers cruised to a 101-85 rout of the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday night.

The defending NBA champions, who squeaked out a 101-98 overtime win at Oklahoma City on Nov. 3, had this one in control throughout with help from Andrew Bynum's 25 points and nine rebounds. Bryant also had seven assists and six rebounds.

Pau Gasol, playing his second game since coming back from a right hamstring strain, had 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists after getting 24 points and 13 boards in Thursday's 108-93 win against Chicago. The Lakers have won 11 straight against the Thunder-Seattle SuperSonics franchise, and are 9-0 this season when scoring 100 or more points.

Bryant thrilled the sellout crowd late in the first quarter when he made one of those Larry Bird-type fadeaway jumpers from behind the baseline near the Lakers' bench while hanging in the air as his momentum carried him out of bounds on a drive against rookie guard James Harden.

Kevin Durant led Oklahoma City with 19 points, after getting 30 or more in five of his previous seven games. The Thunder have given up 100 or more points in each of their last three contests, after allowing fewer than 90 in six of their first 11 contests.

Durant, who came in as the league's fifth-leading scorer with a 27.7-points average and had 28 in the first meeting with the Lakers, missed his first five shots in the rematch while Bynum made his first five to help Los Angeles pull out to a 27-8 lead. Bryant, who scored nine points in the final 2:01 of the quarter, turned a one-bounce offensive rebound into a buzzer-beating bank shot from the foul line to give the Lakers a 35-16 cushion.

Bynum, who didn't practice the previous two days after rolling his right ankle defending against Chicago's Brad Miller, went to the bench for good in the final minute of the third quarter with the Lakers ahead 77-56.

Durant, who made a league-best 452 free throws last season, had only one against the Lakers. It came at the end of a three-point play that trimmed the Lakers' lead to 61-42 with 8:42 left in the third, and was his only attempt from the line.