January 8th, 2009 
Stephen Rhodes 
Posted in 
The Los Angeles Lakers have been rather hot as of late, winning 6 of their last seven games; they would get a chance to enhance that winning streak in their game Wednesday night against the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena. For a good part of the game, it appeared that the win streak would be in jeopardy; however, they rallied in the fourth quarter as Los Angeles managed to defeat Golden State 114-106.
The Lakers started well as they outscored the Warriors 28-20 in the first quarter, but business would pick up for both squads – especially Los Angeles – as the Lakers built a 17-point lead. But Brandan Wright and Jamal Crawford sparked a 16-2 Golden State run to close the gap; the Lakers would go into halftime with a narrow 56-51 lead. The Warriors would lose Wright in the first half with a partially dislocated left shoulder when the Lakers’ Pau Gasol dunked on him.
Golden State would lead 90-87 going into the final period, but the clubs would trade several leads until a 3-pointer by Sasha Vujacic sealed the deal for Los Angeles. Los Angeles’ high scorer was Pau Gasol with 33 points, 18 rebounds, an assist and 2 blocked shots while Kobe Bryant added 21 with 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals; Andrew Bynum pitched in, scoring 18 with 11 rebounds and 2 blocked shots while Trevor Ariza – from off the bench – added 17 with 9 rebounds, an assist and a steal.
Golden State was led by Crawford with 25 points, a rebound, 9 assists but committing 5 turnovers while Corey Maggette added 19 with 6 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal; Kelenna Azubuike poured in 15 with 4 rebounds. Los Angeles (28-6) plays again on Friday when they host the Indiana Pacers while Golden State (10-27) travels north to Portland to take on the Trail Blazers on Saturday.
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