The Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Philadelphia 76ers tonight 95 to 90, dropping to 1-2 on their Grammys road trip. Kobe Bryant played like the "Black Mamba" in the first half as he scored 24 points, passing former teammate Shaquille O'Neal on the all time scoring list in the process. In the 2nd half the 76ers sent a steady diet of double teams to Bryant and he proceeded to pick them apart with his passing as his teammates finished off the possessions. An Andrew Bynum dunk with under 5 minutes to play put the Lakers up 86-79. Then Lou Williams did his best Kobe impression as a closer, scoring 12 of the teams final 16 points in a 16 to 4 run to close the game.
The Lakers offense was powered by Kobe Bryant's 28 points and Andrew Bynum's 20-20 game. They also received solid play from Andrew Goudelock (9 points) and Troy Murphy (7 points) off the bench. Unfortunately for LA it wasn't enough to overcome the well balanced team effort in which eight of the nine Sixers scored at least 8 points, led by Williams' 24. The all too familiar three point shooting woes emerged again as the Lakers made only 7 of 24 attempts (29%). They also were a minus-12 in the turnover department tonight against a very efficient Sixers team. The combination of poor shooting and turnover differential proved too much to make up, even with a 21 rebound effort on the offensive glass.