Thursday evening the Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Washington Wizards and easily won on their home court, 117-97. With 23 points and 14 rebounds from center Andrew Bynum, the Lakers took a 6 point lead after the first quarter, scored 41 in the second quarter for a 72-47 halftime lead, and never looked back.
Los Angeles also got 18 points from Pau Gasol.
Kobe Bryant had a quiet evening, shooting just 4-of-11 for 11 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists.
Four Lakers reserves scored 10 or more points in the blowout win.
Antawn Jamison led the Wizards with 19 points. JaVale McGee came off the bench for 18 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks in 23 minutes. Caron Butler had just 12 points, plus six assists.
As a team, the Lakers dished an amazing 35 assists.
NBA.com reports: A source tells TNT’s David Aldridge that the Memphis Grizzlies have fired head coach Marc Iavaroni. Assistant coach Johnny Davis will take over the team on an interim basis, the source said. The Grizzlies are currently on a seven-game losing streak with an 11-30 record. They have lost 15 of their last 17 games and in last place in the Southwest Division. Iavaroni’s overall record in Memphis was 33-90.
Warriors.com reports: Warriors.com has just learned from our contacts with the Warriors PR staff that Monta Ellis’ long road back from his offseason ankle injury will soon be complete, as the fourth-year guard will make his 2008-09 season debut tomorrow night when the Warriors host the Cavaliers at ORACLE Arena. The decision to have Ellis return to the court was made after Thursday’s practice. Following practice, Ellis expressed his excitement about returning to the floor.
The New Jersey Nets have recalled second year center Sean Williams from the team’s D-League affiliate, the Colorado 14ers, Nets President Rod Thorn announced today.
NBA.com (John Schuhmann) reports: The Cavs currently rank as the second-best defensive team in the league, just behind the Celtics, allowing 101.5 points per 100 possessions. Last season, they didn’t crank up the “D” until the postseason, but this year has been different. “Everybody bought into the system and everybody is committed to playing defense,” Ben Wallace said Monday in Los Angeles. “That was one of the things we stressed in training camp. “Defense has to start with the individuals. You can’t be a good team defense if you got five poor individual defensive players out on the floor, so it has to start with an individual. Everybody has to take it personal that they’re going to go out there and do whatever they can do to go out there to try to get stops. Once one, two, three players start it, it gets contagious and everybody buys into it.”