Scoring against the Warriors isn’t much of a problem for any team, let alone the Lakers.

In fact, in the three previous matchups between the two California squads, L.A. had averaged 124.3 points, all in winning efforts.

Make that four wins for a season sweep.

L.A. had to settle for 114 points on Thursday night at STAPLES in a game that was at once a blowout and a nail-biter.

A smoking hot 20-6 run to start the second half seemed to have put L.A. well on its way, but the plucky Warriors can score too, as they proved in coming almost all the way back late in the fourth quarter. A Monta Ellis layup made it 106-103 Lakers with 1:31 to play, but a key Trevor Ariza three pointer preceded two Lamar Odom free throws and a breakaway Ariza dunk to close the game.

It was the right way for the Lakers to go into their longest road trip of the season – a seven-game Eastern swing that commences in Chicago and concludes in Milwaukee – particularly after dropping the late January double OT contest vs. Charlotte prior to the six-game Grammy trip.

Leading the way for Los Angeles was Pau Gasol, who put up 21 points and 14 boards, while Sasha Vujacic contributed 12 points off the bench, highlighted by three three-pointers in a three minutes stretch around the start of the fourth quarter. Kobe Bryant needed 25 shots to get his 21 points, while Odom matched Gasol’s double-double with 16 and 12.

It wasn’t just Vujacic that was effective off the bench, which combined for 32 points (led by Vujacic), 13 boards (four from Josh Powell) and 12 assists (seven from Jordan Farmar).

The Lakers now take off … for a while. Their longest road trip of the year, seven games in 12 days, begins in Chicago and ends in Milwaukee.

Until then … a few numbers:

10
Straight games without a three-pointer for Luke Walton before his baseline triple in the second quarter.

12
Straight points for Golden State to cut what had been an 18-point third quarter lead down to six with just over a minute remaining.

14
Point margin in the first seven minutes of the third quarter, as the Lakers turned a one-point halftime lead into a 74-57 blowout.

17
Straight minutes played by Pau Gasol in the first half

22
Turnovers from the Lakers, allowing the Warriors to stay in the game.

48.0
Shooting percentage for both teams in the first quarter on 12-of-25.

52
Combined points for Monta Ellis (27) and Kelenna Azubuike (25) to pace the Warriors.

54
Wins for the Lakers.

Sixers forward Andre Iguodala got the trip off to a rip roaring start by sinking a 3-pointer at the final buzzer, to catapult Philadelphia over the Lakers.

The Lakers had a foul to give in the final seconds but Trevor Ariza, who was guarding Iguodala, chose to play straight up defense on the pivotal last possession. Iguodala’s shot from straight away, beyond the arc, was lofted over Ariza’s outstretched hand.

Iguodala’s buzzer-beater snatched the hero’s hat off the head of Kobe Bryant, who with 6.6 seconds left, gave the Lakers the lead with a jump shot. Up to that moment, Bryant had missed his previous five shots in the quarter.

But Iguodala helped Philadelphia finish off a dramatic comeback. The Sixers trailed by 14 points in the third quarter before surging back to seize the lead in the fourth quarter.

The Lakers enjoyed one of their better shooting halves in the first two quarters, when they converted 58.8 percent of their field-goal tries. Philadelphia only shot 39.6 percent from the field.

Yet, the game was deadlocked 50-all at halftime because the Lakers committed 11 turnovers that led to 11 Sixer points, Philadelphia made 11 of 13 free-throw tries and the Sixers were ferocious on the offensive glass.

In the NBA perhaps more than any other professional league, big leads can be fickle.

With 1:18 left in the third quarter of L.A.’s Sunday afternoon game against Dallas, the Lakers led by a comfortable 87-74 margin, a scoreboard reward for generally controlling the Mavs for the entire game.

In the next six minutes, however, the Lakers were reminded what happens when a team takes its collective foot off the gas pedal in the league, as Dallas went on a 21-2 run to take a five-point lead with 7:48 to play in the fourth. Jason Terry got hot from three, and Dallas put in a zone defense that took L.A. out of its offensive comfort zone and put a scowl on Jack Nicholson’s face.

As it turned out, any STAPLES Center unrest was quickly rebuked, thanks to an explosive 12-0 run started and closed with Kobe Bryant threes, with a whole lot of Trevor Ariza in between. Two layups in traffic capped a banner day for Ariza, who finished with a career high 26 points on 9-of-13 shooting, including 3-of-5 three pointers. Yet it all started with his D.

“Yes it’s important to score points and Trevor had a good night tonight in the first half particularly, but his defense and his ability to change things up made the difference,” said Phil Jackson. “That’s what he did late in the ball game that gave us a chance to get the lead back and continue. That was really important.”

Of course, L.A. couldn’t do it without Kobe – it was the MVP who scored seven of his team’s last nine points when buckets were most needed, capping a 28-point performance on 11-of-20 shooting with eight rebounds and five assists. He nailed the game’s two biggest shots, the initial three to cut Dallas’ lead in half with 6:50 remaining, and a 19-foot jumper with 1:15 remaining that buried the Mavs.

In the first half, it was Pau Gasol who toyed with Dallas, making 10-of-10 shots for 20 points with five boards (he’d finish with 25 and eight). As a team, L.A. shot 61.4 percent in the half to take a 66-54 lead into the locker room. For the game, Lamar Odom pulled in 14 boards to complement his 10 points and four blocked shots, though L.A.’s bench managed to contribute just 12 points.

Among the defensive keys for L.A. was contesting Dirk Nowitzki’s looks and not giving the German anything easy … Well, Gasol and Odom did exactly that, combining to hold Dirk to just 6-of-20 shooting (30 percent).

With the win, L.A. improved to 53-13 on the season, winning all three games against Dallas with Philadelphia coming to town on Tuesday.

46
Points in the paint for the Lakers, who conceded just 24 to the jump-shooting Mavericks.

29
Jason Terry’s point total to lead all scorers. Terry canned seven triples, but took 16 of them to get there.

26</b
Career high points for Trevor Ariza, who made 9-of-13 shots including 3-of-5 threes, plus all five of his free throws. He added three steals, three boards and two assists.

14
Field goals missed by Dirk Nowitzki, who had quite a bit of trouble with Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom. The All-Star forward made just 6-of-20 shots (30 percent), struggling for the third straight time against L.A.’s length.

12
Bench points for L.A. on 4-of-17 shooting, including 1-of-7 from three-point range.

1
Point by which the STAPLES crowd missed Jack In The Box free tacos.

Heading into Houston certainly looked like a tasty challenge for the Lakers, who were entering an arena that hadn’t seen a home loss in 12 games, not to mention dealing with the absence of a suspended Lamar Odom.

Well, one player the Lakers had in uniform happened to be the MVP.

Kobe Bryant entered Mamba mode in the fourth quarter, leading the Lakers to a come-from-behind victory after they’d trailed by 11 at the half and three heading into the fourth quarter.

In that final period, while L.A.’s aggressive defense kept Houston from continuing an early low-post feast, Bryant’s entire offensive arsenal was on display for a dumbstruck crowd. After Bryant checked into the game with just under seven minutes remaining, a trash-talking Ron Artest irked Kobe enough to incite double technical fouls on the two, and from that point on, Bryant barely missed.

First came an and-1 layup. Then a three-pointer. Next, a slashing, hanging left-handed layup just past Yao Ming’s extended arm. Finally, Bryant nailed a pull-up jumper, plus the foul as he hung in the air, that put L.A. up 92-86 with 1:05 remaining. From that point in, it all came from the line as Bryant swished home his 37th point and delivered L.A.’s first road win in four tries.

The other news coming out of Houston was that Trevor Ariza, who started for Luke Walton, will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, as Phil Jackson explained after the game. Ariza played well in the contest, but Josh Powell – starting for Lamar Odom – left an even larger stamp, amassing season highs in points (17) and rebounds (9) in 35 minutes of burn. He was particularly effective in the second half, totaling 11 points and six boards as L.A. erased Houston’s double-digit halftime lead.

Pau Gasol added 20 points, five boards and four steals while Luke Walton scored eight of the Lakers’ 12 bench points.

But let’s get back to Kobe for a second. In our Lakers Mailbag, posted today, a reader asked a question regarding Michael Lewis’ New York Magazine article that lauded Shane Battier’s defense on Bryant on particular. Well, the first time these teams played in Houston, Kobe scored 34 points, along with tonight’s 37. Battier was almost completely ineffective on Bryant, and Artest no better, which had the L.A. media calling the article’s bluff outside of the postgame locker room.

After all, nobody was stopping Bryant.

18,449
Houston’s crowd, the fourth-largest crowd in team history, though the building was quite a bit quieter

20
Points off the bench by former Lakers guard Von Wafer to lead Houston in scoring.

17
More points scored by L.A. than Houston in the second half.

12
Houston’s home winning streak heading into the game, having not lost since a Jan. 28 game against Philadelphia.

4
Steals for both Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. L.A. totaled 15 steals, helping to cause Houston’s 23 turnovers.

2
Free throws attempted by the Lakers through three quarters.

L.A.’s Friday night contest against a short-handed Minnesota Timberwolves didn’t prove to be much of a contest as the Lakers cruised to their league-best 50th win in 62 games.

Sure enough, when the game’s three biggest highlights come courtesy of D.J. Mbenga, Shannon Brown and … Mbenga again … it’s not a good sign for L.A.’s opponent.

After the starters had built an 18-point lead heading into the third quarter, L.A.’s bench decided to reward them with a quarter’s full of entertainment:

A) With 8:30 remaining in the game, Mbenga absolutely annihilated a Rodney Carney layup attempt, sending the ball well past the halfcourt line as the bench and crowd went nuts. The refs had to switch the game ball out, since it was half-deflated (not really), and Mbenga finished the game by tying a career high with five blocks.
B) Moments later, as Mbenga made two free throws en route to his career-high 10 points, the crowd offered an “MVP” chant. Fun.
C) Shannon Brown, he of the 45-inch vertical, exploded past a Wolves’ defender on the right wing and took out any anger in his life on the rim with one hand. Brown tossed in a high-flying swat of his own just for kicks.

Not one starter played more than 30 minutes (OK, Gasol played 33 seconds more than 30 minutes) as the bench saw three players score in double figures, led by Josh Powell’s 14 (plus six boards and three blocks), 13 from Trevor Ariza and Mbenga’s 10, not to mention eight from Sasha Vujacic.

Kobe Bryant led all scorers with 23 points in 27 minutes to move past Robert Parish into 18th on the NBA’s all-time scoring chart. Not bad, right?

The Lakers now leave town for the better part of the month, with 10-of-13 games coming on the road, including Monday’s game in Portland.

Until then, a few digits:

23,354
Career points for Kobe Bryant, good enough to pass Robert Parish (who played for 20 years) on the NBA’s all-time leading scorers list. Up next is Charles Barkley, who has 23,757 points.

33
Shooting percentage for the Wolves, who really struggled without Randy Foye in the backcourt.

20
Points for Ryan Gomes to lead Minnesota. Gomes, a former 50th overall pick by the Boston Celtics, is one of the league’s most underrated players, though he is popular among head coaches and GMs.

14
Swats for the Lakers, compared to just four for Minnesota.

4
Turnovers by the Lakers, their fewest of the season.

2
Points for Lamar Odom in 25 minutes, though to be fair Odom did take only two shots. He managed three blocks, five boards and two assists, but missed all four of his free throws.

With that in mind and belief that the bench corps has to step up its game, Lakers coach Phil Jackson gave them an extended run in the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s victory over the Grizzlies.

It was a splendid opportunity for Sasaha Vujacic to break out of his shooting slump, for Josh Powell’s confidence to grow, for Jordan Farmar to return to the way he played before his knee injury, and for Jackson to test DJ Mbenga, just in case the sparingly-used center is needed in the post season.

Mbenga played with energy and exhuberance, a performance that was well appreciated by his teammates and Laker fans, alike.

“That type of effort is what we need on both ends of the floor,” Lakers guard Derek Fisher said.

Memphis has the NBA’s youngest starting lineup, with three rookies in that unit. One of those rookies, former USC star O.J. Mayo, described the season as a roller coaster experience.

But the energetic Grizzlies, who shot 34.8 percent from the field in the first half, trailed only by five points at halftime because they outrebounded the bigger Lakers and were near-flawless (12 of 13) from the free-throw line.

The Grizzlies’ hustle was manifested in the fact that 11 of their 26 first-half rebounds were gathered from the offensive glass. They turned that into eight second-chance points.

But Memphis was unable to put the brakes on the Lakers’ transition game. The Lakers had 15 fast-break points in the first half, including a brilliant fast break that started with a Lamar Odom rebound, an outlet pass to Kobe Bryant and a finishing assist to Pau Gasol for a dunk.

The ball never hit the floor between the time that Odom yanked it out of the air and Gasol flushed it through the basket.

The Lakers missed a reunion with former teammate Chris Mihm, whom the Grizzlies acquired from the Lakers last month in exchange for a conditional second-round draft pick. Mihm underwent surgery Tuesday on his right ankle.

… But one might have thought the Suns could hang around for more than six minutes.

Instead, after Phoenix opened a 20-17 lead, the Lakers went on a 22-6 run to close the first quarter and not once let the Suns back into the game in a thorough Pacific Division beat down.

Lamar Odom and Kobe Bryant barely missed a collective shot, going 11-for-12 and 10-of-13, respectively, to finish with 23 and 22 points despite sitting out the fourth quarter. L.A.’s bench was pretty good too, with each player scoring to combine for 58 points while maintaining the level of play put forth by the starters.

L.A. simply scored at will as Phoenix looked at times incapable and at times overwhelmed defensively, whether it was Bryant, Odom or even D.J. Mbenga (first eight points of the season) filling it up.

Perhaps the best news for L.A. – other than their 48th win – was that Pau Gasol had to play just 23 minutes, Bryant 26, Odom 32 and Fisher 20, with the team heading to Denver immediately after the game for a Friday night tilt against the Nuggets.

We’ll leave you with a few numbers:

84
Combined shooting percentage for the Kobe Bryant (10-of-13) and Lamar Odom (11-of-12).

70
First half points for the Lakers, led by 13 from Bryant, 10 by Odom and 30 combined bench points on 62.2 percent shooting.

58
Bench points for the Lakers, a season high. Sasha Vujacic led the way with 14 while Jordan Farmar had 12, Trevor Ariza 10, DJ Mbenga eight, Josh Powell six, Adam Morrison five and Shannon Brown three as every Laker scored.

54
Season high in field goals made for the Lakers, who had made 48 shots from the field against Minnesota on Jan. 30.

38
Season-high assists for a Lakers’ team that matched a season-high 132 points. They scored a lot.

13
Wins in their last 14 games for the Lakers to get to 48-10, the league’s best record. Boston has 13 losses after dropping a game here at STAPLES to the Clippers on Wednesday, while Cleveland has 12 losses after dropping the first game in tonight’s double-header at Houston.

First, let me send out our thoughts and prayers to Andrew Bynum. Let’s all stay as optimistic as possible until we get the results of the MRI he will be getting tomorrow in New York.

Now back to the game, we didn’t start the game well and after Bynum went down, we seemed to play even more out of sync. Our defense was pretty much nonexistent, we allowed the Grizzlies to shoot wide open shoots and shoot 57% from the field as a team.

Similarly to last night’s game, we came out of halftime with some sense of urgency. Kobe and Pau set the tone and we again broke open the game in the third by outscoring the Grizzlies by 15. Again, our defense improved in the second half, holding Memphis to only 37 after halftime.

I hope everyone stay safe tomorrow and enjoy the Super Bowl, and Go Steelers!

Player of the Game: Pau Gasol and his 24 points , 8 rebounds, and 4 assists will get my player of the game tonight. He played a very well overall game tonight.

Play of the Game: Kobe’s left handed dunk in the second quarter.

What’s Up Next: We’ll be in the Big Apple on Monday night to face the Knicks.

The game plan for L.A. heading into Minnesota was rather simple: use your far superior size inside to expose one of the league’s smallest front lines.

That’s precisely what the Lakers did.

Behind Andrew Bynum’s 27 points and 15 rebounds, plus 21 and nine from Pau Gasol, the Lakers pounded a Minnesota team that never gave up in a rather wild ballgame in which L.A. hit its season high in points.

Minnesota, who’d won 10-of-13 games in January, simply didn’t have an answer to L.A.’s length, but stuck in the game behind All-Star snub Al Jefferson’s 34 points and 13 rebounds, plus 27 points from Randy Foye.

Kobe Bryant tossed in 30 points on 12-of-23 shooting, plus five assists and eight boards for the Lakers, but provided a brief scare when he went off the floor holding his hand late in the third after a dunk. No worries though, as he had simply popped a blister that was bleeding, forcing Lakers athletic trainer Gary Vitti to tape him up prior to later insertion in the fourth quarter.

Trevor Ariza played well after suffering a concussion in Tuesday night’s game against Charlotte, going for eight points (including two run-stopping threes), five boards, two assists, a block and his traditional late steal.

A few numbers before the squad heads to Memphis for the tail end of a back-to-back.

3
Lakers with at least 20 points: Pau Gasol (21), Andrew Bynum (27) and Kobe Bryant (30).

5
Straight double-doubles for Bynum, who has clearly flipped on the proverbial light bulb. That’s Bynum’s 16th double-double of the season.

7
Lakers in double-figures, including Lamar Odom, Trevor Ariza, Luke Walton and Derek Fisher.

17
Points for Bynum in the first half on 6-of-8 shooting and 5-of-6 from the line.

25
Double-doubles this season for Al Jefferson, who put up 34 and 13 in 42 minutes.

40
Points in the pain through three quarters for Minnesota. The season high for a Wolves opponent this season is 60 (Jan. 16, Phoenix). L.A. finished with 50 in the lane.

42.7
Shooting percentage for the Wolves, compared with 50.5 percent from L.A.

68
Second half points for the Lakers, the most the Wolves have given up in one half this season. In the first half, L.A. scored 64 points, which had been the most conceded by Minnesota before the second half barrage.

With Kobe Bryant watching helplessly on the bench, Charlotte took control in the second overtime Tuesday night to secure the victory.

Not only have the Bobcats won six of the past seven meetings against the Lakers but Charlotte has won the past three times the teams have played at Staples Center.

Back on Dec. 29, 2006, Charlotte defeated the Lakers 133-124 in triple-overtime in Charlotte. The Lakers now have experienced two extra-session losses to Charlotte, a franchise that only came into existence four seasons ago.

The Lakers played the second overtime period without their star and the league’s best closer, Bryant, who fouled out with 39.8 seconds remaining in the first overtime session. Bryant went to the bench having scored 38 points.  It was the first time this season that Bryant was disqualified on fouls.

The Lakers played the majority of the game without their Bench Mob ace Trevor Ariza, who suffered a concussion in the second quarter. But Charlotte lost its best offensive player, Gerald Wallace, in the fourth quarter, when he was hip checked to the floor, on a drive to the basket, by Lakers center Andrew Bynum.

It was ruled a flagrant 1 on Bynum but Wallace was taken to the locker room and was unable to shoot his free throws. Wallace later was taken to Centinela Medical Center and was to remain there overnight. Wallace was given a CT exam to see if he had suffered a collapsed lung. An X-ray also was administered to see if Wallace suffered a fractured rib.

It has been the Bobcats’ style to bleed as much time off the shot clock on most offensive possessions, which reduces the possessions for both teams in games and usually results in lower-scoring games.

But Charlotte altered their script somewhat Tuesday, which resulted in a free-scoring first half, by the Bobcats’ standards.

The Lakers trailed for the majority of the first half and were behind by as many as 10 points. Despite not having a imposing inside presence, the Bobcats outscored the Lakers 34-20 in the paint, in the first half.

A large chunk of those points were scored on aggressive drives to the basket by Wallace and point guard Raymond Felton.

Bryant missed his first five shots of the game but started to find his target in the second quarter, when he sank 4 of his 5 field-goal attempts. Bryant’s baseline drive to the basket triggered a pair of passes that ended in Derek Fisher’s 3-pointer, with 13.3 seconds remaining in the half that gave the Lakers a 48-47 lead, their first advantage since the first quarter.

But Felton responded with a short pull-up jumper, with nine-tenths of a second left and the Bobcats took a 49-48 halftime lead into the locker room.

Bynum finished with 24 points, 14 rebounds and six blocked shots. It marked Bynum’s fourth consecutive points-rebounds double-double. In the past 11 games, Bynum is averaging 20.2 points.

The loss was a disappointed prelude to the Lakers’ upcoming six-game road trip that will feature games at Cleveland and at Boston.

“We’re looking forward to this trip,” Bryant said. “We’re going to go out there, defend, play solid basketball and see if we can’t beat ‘em.”