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World Peace leads Lakers over Spurs

Apr 12, 2012 - 7:21 AM San Antonio, TX (Sports Network) - Metta World Peace stepped up with 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting and Andrew Bynum pulled down a staggering 30 rebounds, as the Lakers rolled to a convincing 98-84 victory over the San Antonio Spurs.

The lopsided decision was surprising considering the league's leading scorer, Kobe Bryant, sat out for a third straight game due to a sore left shin.

Bynum added 16 points to go along with his career-high effort on the glass, while Pau Gasol chipped in 21 points and 11 boards for the Lakers, who held a decided 60-33 rebounding advantage.

"I was just going to go get them," Bynum said about his big rebounding night. "They missed a lot of jump shots and they were shooting very quickly, so they were coming off the rim nice and soft."

Los Angeles' sixth win in eight games helped maintain its 1 1/2-game lead over the Clippers atop the Pacific Division.

The Spurs dropped their second straight on the heels of an 11-game winning streak and remained a game back of the Western Conference-leading Thunder.

Danny Green paced San Antonio with 22 points, while Tony Parker was held to just four points on an uncharacteristic 2-of-12 shooting night.

Bynum grabbed 11 rebounds alone in the first quarter, which ended with the visitors leading 24-21.

Matt Barnes scored 11 of his 13 points in the second frame to give the Lakers a 48-43 lead at the break, and LA shot 12-of-18 (66.7 percent) from the field in the third quarter to take control.

World Peace put in a layup to end an 8-0 run that yielded a 58-45 cushion early on, then capped another eight-point spurt with a step-back jumper for a 71-51 advantage with under four minutes left.

Trailing 75-59 entering the fourth, the Spurs rested most of their starters with a matchup against the Grizzlies set for Thursday.

"They played great and they beat us to death. There's nothing else you can say about it," Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said. "They beat us in every facet of the game. It was a really poor performance."

Game Notes

This was the first of three meetings between the teams over the final two weeks of the regular season...San Antonio's Manu Ginobili scored nine points, upping his career total to 10,001...Tim Duncan netted 14 points for the Spurs but only grabbed two rebounds...San Antonio fell to 23-5 at home...Ramon Sessions and Steve Blake each scored 10 points to round out the Lakers' double-digit scorers.