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Lakers face Spurs in Western Conference showdown

Mar 12, 2009 - 6:24 AM By Dan Pieringer Stats Writer

LA Lakers (51-13) at San Antonio Spurs (43-20), 8 p.m. EDT

SAN ANTONIO (Ticker) -- After some recent road struggles against other contenders in the Western Conference, the first-place Los Angeles Lakers had to feel good about taking down one of the conference's hottest teams in their last game.

They just hope to have something left for another big matchup in the finale of a three-game trip.

The Lakers look to build on a hard-fought win when they visit the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night in the final regular-season matchup between the teams with the best records in the West.

Los Angeles (51-13) lost consecutive road games against playoff hopefuls Denver, Phoenix and Portland before snapping the skid with a 102-96 win at Houston on Wednesday.

Kobe Bryant scored 31 of his 37 points in the second half - including 18 in the fourth quarter - as the Lakers overcame an 11-point halftime deficit to snap the Rockets' 12-game home winning streak.

Most of the postgame conversation surrounded a heated fourth-quarter exchange between Bryant and Rockets forward Ron Artest, who continued to jaw at each other the rest of the game.

"It wasn't much of a battle," said Bryant, who helped limit Artest to 11 points and 4-for-16 shooting. "I kicked his (butt) tonight."

Beating the team with the third-best record in the West may have been confidence-inspiring, but the Lakers will have to regroup fast for this meeting with the second-best. The Spurs (43-20) were idle after defeating Charlotte 100-86 at home Tuesday.

The Lakers are 11-4 in the second half of back-to-backs, including a 112-111 loss in their only previous trip to San Antonio on Jan. 14.

That win started the Spurs' 9-1 run at AT&T Center. After dropping three of four overall from February 27-March 4, San Antonio has returned home to win three straight by an average of 13.7 points.

"We've been playing pretty solid," forward Kurt Thomas said after Tuesday's victory. "We hit a few bumps in the road when we lost a couple of games. But I think we've bounced back and hopefully we can show that on Thursday night."

Manu Ginobili led San Antonio with 27 points and Tim Duncan and Tony Parker added 20 apiece as the Spurs shot a season-high 57.1 percent from the field in their home win over the Lakers.

However, the Spurs looked like a different team in their rematch January 25, shooting 37.5 percent in a 99-85 loss in Los Angeles.

Ginobili resumed some basketball activities this week, but he's expected to miss his 13th straight game because of a stress reaction in his right ankle.

With Ginobili sidelined, Parker has stepped up to average 26.1 points and 7.6 assists while shooting 51.6 percent from the field over his last nine games.

"Tony continues to be aggressive and play as the All-Star he is," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said after Parker had 21 points and seven assists against the Bobcats. "A lot of people joined him tonight and we played good, solid defense. ... Now we gear up for another game. They're going to keep coming. The challenge continues."

The Lakers will get starting forward Lamar Odom back for this game. Odom, held to 3.8 points over his last four games, missed Wednesday's win while serving a one-game suspension for leaving the bench during an altercation in Monday's loss in Portland.