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SAN ANTONIO -- Sometime during the third quarter of a Game 1 that just couldn't find a rhythm, Kobe Bryant chimed in on Twitter some 1,350 miles away from San Antonio at his Newport Beach, Calif. home.

"This game has a 'steal one' written all over it for us," Bryant tweeted.

It looked that way for a little while, with the Los Angeles Lakers cutting the San Antonio Spurs' lead that was 12 shortly after halftime down to four after a Steve Blake fadeaway jumper midway through the third. But rather than wilt with a little pressure, San Antonio had the cushion back to 13 heading into the fourth and ultimately held firm for a 91-79 victory.

Coming into the series, the Lakers talked about their defense needing to show up and set the tone, and guess what? That happened.

The Spurs shot just 37.6 percent from the field, but L.A. was more anemic on offense, shooting three for 15 (20 percent) on 3-pointers.

We'll see if the Lakers missed a golden opportunity Sunday or if they just needed to flush a game out of their system before Game 2.

How it happened: Quite simply, the Spurs' guy with the injured hamstring outplayed the Lakers' guy with the injured hamstring. Not that Steve Nash was terrible out there, he gutted out 16 points on 6-for-15 shooting in 31 minutes with three assists and just one turnover, but he was a step slow on defense and missed a few timely shots that really could have made it a tight game in the third. Manu Ginobili, meanwhile, only scored two more points than Nash (18) and shot slightly better (6-for-13), but he made timely contributions with a momentum-swinging 3-pointer late in the third quarter to put the Spurs up 12 and a nail-in-the-coffin assist to Matt Bonner, who hit a 3 late in the fourth, to seal it.

What it means: The Spurs came into the game having lost their last five regular-season games against Western Conference playoff teams, and coach Gregg Popovich admitted that his team looked "discombobulated" when he spoke to the media before Sunday's game. Meanwhile, the Lakers had won five straight, including two in a row without Bryant, and seemed to be clicking. So, what does Game 1 mean? That the regular season is ancient history. The Spurs got back to their game when it counted. Now L.A. has to prove it can do the same.

Hits: Pau Gasol (16 points, 16 rebounds, six assists) was just four assists away from his third triple-double in his past four games.

Dwight Howard had 20 points and 15 rebounds and was able to manage playing with five fouls without fouling out.

Misses: Jodie Meeks (1-for-4) not only had a rough day from the field, but he suffered a mild sprain of his left ankle. Lakers trainer Gary Vitti re-taped Meeks, and the backup guard was able to get back in the game, but they’ll have to monitor the swelling heading into Game 2.

Howard started off 2-for-2 from the free throw line and finished 4-for-8.

Stat of the game: Howard (8-for-12) was the only Lakers player to shoot better than 50 percent.

Up next: The teams get two days of rest before Wednesday's Game 2. The time off should benefit the Lakers, as it will give Nash and Meeks two days to recover and Mike D'Antoni two days to make adjustments.

After one of the most arduous and pitfall-filled seasons in Los Angeles Lakers history, if not in the entire history of the league, the guys in purple and gold find themselves in the postseason with a first-round series against the San Antonio Spurs.

L.A. has to feel good about itself, finishing the regular season 28-12 after bottoming out with a record eight games below .500 in late January. They were even better in April, going 7-1, including winning their last five in a row to secure the No. 7 seed and set up their date with the No. 2 Spurs.

However, during that final postseason push, Kobe Bryant went out with an Achilles tear in his left foot, requiring surgery that will sideline him for six to nine months.

Can the Bryant-less Lakers upset a Spurs team that finished with the second-best record in the West and third-best record in the entire league?

Here are 10 things to think about heading into the series to determine just how realistic a possibility that is.

1. San Antonio's home-court advantage

Even though the Spurs looked somewhat ripe for the picking, having gone 3-7 over their final 10 games of the regular season, remember that the series opens up at the AT&T Center, where they went 35-6 this season. Meanwhile, the Lakers were just 16-25 away from Staples Center. It will be a major challenge for L.A. to bring the series back home with a split after the first two games in San Antonio.

2. Hamstrings

Definitely the body part that could have the biggest impact on the series for both teams. Steve Nash plans to play in Game 1 after missing the Lakers' last eight games because of a bum right hamstring, hip and lower back. Manu Ginobili only played one game in April -- an uninspiring 12 minutes in the season finale -- because of his own right hamstring injury. If Ginobili is healthy, he could have a field day carving up the Lakers' perimeter defense that is missing Bryant and has a hobbled Metta World Peace out there still less than a month removed from knee surgery. If Nash is healthy, L.A. gets another elite shooter to help open up the floor so Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol have more room to operate down low.

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LOS ANGELES -- A day after Los Angeles Lakers manager Mitch Kupchak said Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni would be back next season, D’Antoni was named the NBA Western Conference coach of the Month for games played in April, the NBA announced Thursday.

Mike Woodson, who was D’Antoni’s former assistant and replaced him as the coach of the New York Knicks, was named the NBA Eastern Conference Coach of the Month.

D’Antoni guided the Lakers (along with the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers) to the best record in the conference in April at 7-1. The Lakers won five straight games to close the season, including three over Western Conference playoff teams -- Golden State, San Antonio and Houston, the final two without the services of Kobe Bryant, who tore his Achilles tendon with over three minutes left in a tie game with Golden State. The seventh-seeded Lakers finished the season 45-37 and will face San Antonio in the first round of the playoffs beginning Sunday.

There had been talk of D’Antoni’s job security with the Lakers on the verge of not making the playoffs entering the final week of the season, but Kupchak put that talk to rest after the Lakers defeated Houston on Wednesday to secure a playoff berth and a seven seed, which seemed out of the question on Jan. 23 when the D’Antoni and the Lakers held a team meeting with the Lakers languishing with a 17-25 record.

The Lakers have since gone 28-12 to finish the season, which is what D’Antoni predicted the Lakers would have to do to make it into the playoffs.

"I think under the circumstances, Mike did a great job. We don't anticipate any kind of a change," Kupchak told ESPNLosAngeles.com. "No training camp, all the injuries, through the end of the season he's done a great job."

D'Antoni took over as the Lakers coach after Mike Brown was fired just five games into the season after the team started 1-4 with a star-studded lineup that include Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant.

The lineup, however, was rarely on the court together as D'Antoni went just 12-20 out of the gates as the Lakers struggled with injuries, especially to their point guards Nash and Steve Blake. The Lakers’ “Big Four” of Bryant, Gasol, Howard and Nash were only able to 22 games together this season as D’Antoni continuously mixed and matched lineups.

"He doesn't get enough credit, and understandably so," Kupchak said. "We struggled through two-thirds of the season, and expectations were so high. The Lakers didn't help things by making the coaching change and putting Mike in that situation, which he was glad to take. But I think it was a little bit tougher than he thought it would be."

LOS ANGELES -- Last week, before the Lakers' already nightmarish season seemingly veered completely off the tracks with Kobe Bryant's ruptured Achilles tendon, Bryant was still confident that the Lakers wouldn’t just make the playoffs but that they could win a championship.

As he sat in front of his locker following the media scrum he said, “Look at what the Kings did last year. They got into the playoffs as the eight seed and won the Stanley Cup. We’re trying to do the same thing.”

Bryant attended a number of the Los Angeles Kings' playoff games with his daughters during their magical and improbable run to the Stanley Cup last summer and didn’t understand why it couldn’t be duplicated on the basketball court this summer.

“There’s no reason we can’t do it,” Bryant said. “Everything resets in the playoffs.”

Of course, that was before Bryant was lost for the season and we found out that Steve Nash's assortment of injuries weren’t just day-to-day bad but taking-two-epidurals-just-to-practice bad. Nevertheless, Bryant’s stance doesn’t change and neither does the Lakers’ goal heading into the playoffs.

After the Lakers clinched a playoff berth that Bryant promised would happen back when the Lakers were well below .500, he tweeted, “And to think some said we wouldn’t make it.. #keepcalm #believe #playoffs now #makehistory”

He later tweeted, “Playoff promise fulfilled #ontothenext”

It doesn’t make sense that the Lakers will be entering the playoffs, without Bryant and possibly without Nash, as confident as they’ve been all season. But that’s exactly the way the Lakers were feeling after their 99-95 overtime win over the Houston Rockets on Wednesday to clinch the seventh seed and a first round match-up against the San Antonio Spurs which begins on Sunday.

They are finally moving the ball the way Mike D’Antoni envisioned they could. They are finally playing defense with the kind of intensity that Dwight Howard hoped they would. And they are playing inside-out and relying on their bigs as Pau Gasol and Howard have pleaded for since November.

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LOS ANGELES -- The Lakers are in.

In what seemed like a remote possibility months ago and a dicey proposition even a week ago when Kobe Bryant went out with a torn Achilles, the Lakers not only got into the playoffs, they got in playing a brand of basketball that could equate to some continued postseason success.

Here they are, 16 wins from an unlikely championship No. 17, with a suddenly stingy defense that allowed its past two opponents -- one of them being the highest-scoring team in the league in the Houston Rockets and the other being the No. 2 team in the West in the San Antonio Spurs -- to average 93 points on 39.3 percent shooting.

Here they are, riding a wave of momentum and playing with one rock that is finding so many hands -- from the five guys who scored eight points or more against the Spurs to the six guys who tallied nine points or more against the Rockets.

Even when the ball was spread around Wednesday, it didn't always go in, of course; L.A. shot just 36.7 percent as a team. But the fact that it kept moving kept the Lakers' bodies moving on defense.

"The great thing about it was everybody contributed," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said.

Who makes up the "everybody" on the Lakers' roster that D'Antoni was referring to has changed drastically throughout the season and maybe even more so in the past two games without Bryant.

Suddenly Darius Morris has a place off the bench. And Steve Blake is relied on to score (47 points over his past two games, a dramatic change from the player who scored two points or fewer 16 times in 2011-12). And Jodie Meeks is starting in Bryant's place and even receiving "Jo-die! Jo-die!" chants from the crowd, taking Kobe's cheers.

Most important, the team identity is firmly established. The Lakers are an inside-out team controlled by Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol. They are not the second coming of Showtime. They are not Bryant freelancing with shades of the triangle. They are not Steve Nash running the pick-and-roll or Bryant running the pick-and-roll.

This is a team that will slow you down, grind you out, pound you all over and do it on both ends.

"Because [Bryant is] such a big, important part of what we did, and rightly so, it is different," D'Antoni said before the game Wednesday. "And then when Nash comes back, it will be a little different again. So, there’s always different layers, but he’s a big layer or two."

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LOS ANGELES -- In what has seemed at times like a never-ending Los Angeles Lakers season, the last game of the regular season came down to the last minute of overtime.

The Memphis Grizzlies seemingly took most of the drama out of the night for the Los Angeles Lakers before their game had even tipped off against the Houston Rockets.

Memphis beat the Utah Jazz to assure the Lakers a playoff berth for the eighth straight season and 19th time in the past 20.

So, as disastrous as the Lakers' season has seemed, L.A. did make good on Kobe Bryant's playoff guarantee even with Bryant out for the rest of the season after Achilles tendon surgery and, even with a loss against Houston, L.A. would finish the season 28-12 over its final 40 games.

But there was still the business of who the Lakers' and Rockets' first-round opponents would be.

The winner would get to play the No. 2-seeded San Antonio Spurs. The loser would have to face the Western Conference's top team, the Oklahoma City Thunder.

L.A. gets the Spurs, it turns out, after a 99-95 overtime win over the Rockets. So instead of having to face a 60-win Oklahoma City team that ousted L.A. from the playoffs last season, the Lakers get a Spurs team that is just 3-7 over its last 10 games heading into the playoffs, including a 91-86 loss to the Lakers last weekend.

How it happened: L.A. fell down 18-12 early, prompting coach Mike D'Antoni to call a timeout, which spurred a 9-0 run by the Lakers. The Rockets built their lead to 11 in the second half before the Lakers' new "big three" of Steve Blake (24 points after 23 points Sunday against San Antonio), Dwight Howard (16 points) and Pau Gasol (17 points and a bunch of other great stats), gave the team a three-point lead with less than a minute left in the fourth. That's when the ball found itself in the hands of the Rockets' Chandler Parsons, who hit a dead-away 3-pointer from 36 feet to tie the score at the regulation buzzer.

In overtime, Jodie Meeks atoned for his 1-for-9 start from the field by throwing down a momentum-changing baseline dunk, and tacking on a huge free throw to put L.A. up by four with 14.5 seconds left. James Harden cut it to two with two free throws, but Blake iced it with a final two freebies to end the game 8-for-8 from the line.

What it means: The Lakers are 2-0 without Bryant, and even though San Antonio is still a tough place to open the playoffs, there is no denying the momentum they will take with them into the postseason whether No. 24 is in the lineup or not.

Hits: Gasol finished with 17 points, 20 rebounds and 11 assists for his second triple-double in his last three games.

Blake's 47 points over his last two games are more than Steve Nash's highest two-game total this season (38, twice).

Antawn Jamison scored 16 points off the bench.

Misses: Nash missed his eighth straight game because of right hip, hamstring and lower-back pain. Nash revealed to ESPN's Chris Broussard during an in-game sideline interview that he received two epidurals this week to try to deal with the pain.

Stat of the game: L.A. held Houston, which had averaged 106.1 points coming into Wednesday, to just 95 points in 53 minutes of game time.

Up next: The Lakers will open up the postseason with Game 1 of its first-round series with the Spurs in San Antonio on Sunday.

Tim Grover knew what had happened almost instantly. The look on Kobe Bryant's face just wasn’t right. The way he stayed down on the ground, the way he grabbed the back of his heel -- it all pointed in a bad direction.

“I knew,” Grover said. “I knew it was something serious.”

Grover has been Bryant’s trainer since 2007. He’s nursed him back from all sorts of serious injuries and helped him find a work-around to knee issues that once threatened the guard's career. So long as Bryant had the will to do the training and attack the problems, Grover would give him solutions and courses of action.

It’s why Grover’s longtime client Michael Jordan recommended him to Bryant after Jordan retired, and why he’s essentially been at Bryant’s side ever since.

But a torn Achilles tendon -- which Bryant suffered April 12 in the fourth quarter of the Lakers' 118-116 win against the Golden State Warriors -- was something altogether different. You can’t do any strengthening exercises to get you back on the court in a few days. You can’t push through the pain. You’re just out, for a good long while.

“It didn’t hurt me as much as it hurt him,” Grover said. “But it’s pretty damn close. I just know how much this means to him and how hard he’s worked to be in this position.”

In the first few hours after the injury, Grover knew what needed to be done. Research everything, give Bryant his options, think it all through with him, help him make the best decisions. Was it better to have surgery right away or wait? Are there options besides surgery? How long would the recovery really take? Who has made the best recovery from a similar injury?

“The guy who jumped out at me was [David] Beckham,” Grover said. Immediately, he began reading up and making calls to Beckham’s camp to find out the keys to success.

As frustrating and heartbreaking as the situation was, there was no time to dwell on it.

“Kobe always wants to know everything,” Grover explained. “Every detail. Why we’re doing this? What our options are? He’s very detail-oriented.”

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Dwight Howard had been there. To the operating table, to the dark place a career-threatening injury can plunge a superstar into, and down the long, frustrating road that comes next.

He'd been there, and so he is determined to be there for Kobe Bryant as he goes through the same experience now, trying to come back from a completely torn Achilles tendon.

Saturday afternoon Howard visited Bryant at the hospital before and after he'd had surgery. And it won't be the last time.

"I know how he feels," Howard told ESPNLosAngeles.com. "It hurts. I just wanted to be there."

Bryant mentioned the meeting on his Twitter feed after the Los Angeles Lakers outlasted the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday night.

"D12 was a beast," Bryant tweeted. "He stopped by the hospital twice yesterday to check on big bro. that's luv #countond12"

Howard had 26 points and 17 rebounds in the win over the Spurs.

LOS ANGELES -- It figured to be an emotional night in the first Los Angeles Lakers game since Kobe Bryant went out with that devastating season-ending Achilles tear. And L.A. used the charged atmosphere to its advantage.

Here's a look back at L.A.'s game No. 81 of the season and game No. 1 without Kobe, where the Lakers improved to 44-37, the most games above .500 they've been all season:

How it happened: L.A. controlled the game from the tip and withstood the Hack-a-Howard strategy by the San Antonio Spurs in the third quarter to pull ahead in the end, thanks to some timely fourth-quarter buckets by Antawn Jamison and made free throws by Dwight Howard and Steve Blake.

What it means: If the Utah Jazz lose either of their next two games -- at the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday or at the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday -- the Lakers are in the playoffs no matter what happens on Wednesday, when the Lakers host the Houston Rockets in their regular-season finale.

Hits: Howard might have shot just 4-for-11 on free throws in the third quarter, but he was lights out all game for the most part. He clearly wanted to step up in Bryant's absence and finished with 26 points and 17 rebounds, while shooting 9-for-15 from the floor.

Blake scored 23 points, topping the 20-point plateau for just the 17th time of his 10-year career.

Jamison scored nine of his 15 points in the fourth quarter.

Misses: Gasol shot just 3-for-17 from the floor -- but chipped in 16 rebounds.

Stat of the game: The Lakers shot just 31-for-85 from the field (36.5 percent) and still managed to win, holding San Antonio to 37.1 percent shooting overall.

Up next: One game left -- Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. against Houston. Oh boy.

LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles Lakers equipment manager Carlos Maples' job was easier this time around.

Usually when the team signs a free agent late in the season, Maples has to scramble to get a uniform made up in time for the player's arrival. Since the Lakers already had plenty of Andrew Goudelock's old No. 0 jerseys in stock, all Maples had to do Sunday was sew on a Dr. Jerry Buss commemorative "JB" patch onto one of them.

Goudelock was called up from the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA D-League on Saturday and completed the paperwork to sign with the Lakers for the remainder of the season just about an hour before tipoff of their game against the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday.

The 6-foot-2 combo guard, who was selected by the Lakers with the No. 46 pick in the 2011 draft and waived during training camp this season, just feels good to be back.

"This is like home for me," Goudelock said. "This is the first place I played in the NBA, and for me to be able to come back, it was surreal for me. When I got the call, I didn’t even know [what to think]. I was just looking at my coach for like five minutes, like, ‘Are you serious? Are you playing with me?’ So, this is a surreal feeling. I just want to take advantage of it."

Goudelock was informed by Vipers coach Nick Nurse before their playoff game against the Maine Red Claws on Saturday.

"I’m just doing my regular thing and my coach comes out," Goudelock recalled. "‘You’re not playing today.’ I’m like, ‘Am I in trouble?’ He’s like, ‘No, the Lakers called you back. So you got to leave in the morning.’"

Goudelock arrived in Los Angeles from Houston around noon on Sunday and got to the arena at 3 p.m. for a crash course with assistant coach Dan D'Antoni.

"We went over just some basic things, but he said most of it is just playing," Goudelock said. "They said if you don’t shoot, [D’Antoni] gets mad. That’s right up my alley."

Goudelock did plenty of shooting in the D-League. In 51 games (all starts) with Sioux Falls and Rio Grande Valley this season, Goudelock averaged 21.1 points, 3.9 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.16 steals in 36.9 minutes. Goudelock, who said he lost 15 pounds since training camp in part because of dedicated training and in part because his meager D-League salary didn't allow him to eat like he did when he was with the Lakers, thought the experience made him a better player.

"The D-League is definitely tough," Goudelock said. "From the pay, to the travel, to dealing with different guys, different personalities, different coaches -- it’s definitely a learning curve.

"It definitely sucks to have to leave the NBA, leave all this and then go there. Then you think you deserve to be called up, you think that you deserve to be in the NBA, but it doesn’t happen. You just have to wait. You just have to wait and wait and wait, and it’s devastating, but when it does happen, words can’t really explain how you feel. And I feel like I got so much better, it’s almost like I’m getting a second chance here. Whereas when I first came in, I didn’t know that much. This time I’m coming around and I know a lot."

D'Antoni knows that Goudelock is a capable NBA player who had a four-game stretch in his rookie season during which he averaged 11.5 points on 50 percent shooting from the field and 57.1 percent shooting on 3-pointers (8-for-14) in 20.8 minutes, and the Lakers went 3-1.

"He can play and he can make shots. That’s the biggest thing," D'Antoni said. "That was the thinking [that he can create his own shot] and also he can go into the playoffs with us [because he is eligible]. He’s comfortable here and he can make shots."

Goudelock had other opportunities overseas in China, Russia and Puerto Rico, and there was even some flirtation by the Memphis Grizzlies, but somehow his journey took him back to L.A. when Kobe Bryant, the guy who dubbed him the "Mini Mamba" last season, went out with a season-ending Achilles tear.

"It’s just surreal," Goudelock said. "You never think you’ll be back here, and then you’re back here."

Even though Goudelock was cut back in October, he has paid attention to the Lakers' season and has kept in touch with former teammates Devin Ebanks, Darius Morris and Pau Gasol.

"You got to pay a lot of attention to the Lakers because it’s always on TV," Goudelock said. "As soon as you turn on ESPN, it’s the first thing that comes on TV. It just seems like something is happening every day, something different."

He did not anticipate the Lakers struggling the way they have.

"This is the most talent that I’ve ever seen," Goudelock said. "I thought that it would be a lock that these guys would be at least in the top three or four [teams in the league]. So I was surprised. I didn’t know what to [think]. People would be like, ‘Maybe they need you back.’ And I’m like, ‘No, not me.’ But you never really know how things are going to turn out; I guess that’s why they play the game. You just can’t put a team together and say, ‘Hey, they’re going to be No. 1.’ They played the game and unfortunately things didn’t turn out as well as everybody wanted them to, but they still have a chance to make the playoffs, and the playoffs is a new season."

And for Goudelock, it's a new chance at an NBA career.

"You never really know what’s going to happen in this business," Goudelock said. "People keep telling you that, people keep telling you that, and you never really believe it until stuff like that happens to you."

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Even in the moment in which Kobe Bryant appeared as vulnerable as he's ever been and proved to actually be just as human as the rest of us, he showed why he's earned the reputation of indestructibility he's known for.

Bryant suffered a complete rupture of the Achilles tendon in his left leg late in the fourth quarter Friday. But before Bryant exited the game, he walked to the free throw line under his own power, made two free throws on one leg to tie the game and shuffled back off the court with his night -- his season -- over.

Both shots were perfect swishes (just listen to the sound of the net snapping at 2:22 and 2:41 of this video), and both shots were every bit as big as the two previous 3-pointers he hit a minute before to turn a six-point deficit back to a tied ballgame.

If you ever need a 30-second clip to sum up who Bryant was as a basketball player, there's your evidence right there.

Those free throws should rank right up there with his most memorable shots, from his one-handed banker against Miami to those two clutch shots against Phoenix in the 2006 playoffs.

Not just because they personify the grit and determination Bryant plays with, but because they are a representation of Bryant's relationship to the game in the first place. How many hours has Bryant spent in a gym with just the ball and the basket? That's what was at the essence of those shots. It was Bryant immersing himself in his rhythm, his shooting motion, his feel, his follow through. It was Bryant blocking out his injury, the future, his past, the Lakers, the Warriors, the fans chanting "M-V-P," the playoff implications.

"He’s remarkable," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said. "For him to hit the fouls shots is remarkable. It just didn’t end. You have a greater appreciation to what he wills himself to do."

Talking about the free throws brought Lakers trainer Gary Vitti to tears on Saturday.

"Kobe showed tremendous guts out there by hitting the two free throws that kept us in the game and eventually won the game," Vitti said, his voice cracking as he choked up. "The kid went up there with a torn Achilles tendon and buried two free throws. I think it’s a great inspiration for our players."

Lakers vice president of player personnel Jim Buss got emotional, too, as he watched the scene play out on his television.

"Made me cry watching him, the Great Warrior, walk to the free throw line and, of course, make both to keep us in the ball game," Buss wrote to ESPNLosAngeles.com late Friday night. "To me, one of the greatest moments in sports."

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Dwight Howard was the last player on the court after practice Saturday.

He is almost always the last player on the court.

It might not show, but he spends hours working on his free throws with Lakers assistant coach Chuck Person before firing a few shots from beyond the arc as he yells “Sam Perkins!” -- an ode to the former Los Angeles Lakers big man who had a penchant for hitting the deep ball.

Howard, however, did something different Saturday after the Lakers finished their first practice following Kobe Bryant's ruptured Achilles tendon just 12 hours earlier, which will sideline him for the next six to nine months.

With his teammates gathered, Howard stood in front of them and spoke for the first time as the team leader.

“I just told them that [Lakers management] put this team together for a reason, and we all know how to play basketball,” Howard said. “We’ve all done special things in our career before, and it’s time to do it again. We’ve all been blessed to play with Kobe, but we all have talent too, and we have to show it.”

For the first time since being traded to the Lakers in August, Howard was given the opportunity to lead the team. It’s a position he held with the Orlando Magic for the previous eight seasons and one that he anticipated accepting with the Lakers at some point after Bryant retires.

“That’s why they brought me here,” Howard said.

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LOS ANGELES -- Kobe Bryant knew exactly what had happened the moment he crumbled to the floor.

He didn't want to believe it but the feeling was unmistakable as he tried to get up and put pressure on his left foot.

As Pau Gasol stood in front of him, Bryant looked down at his leg and looked up at Gasol and angrily uttered an expletive.

He would utter the same expletive twice more, each time his voice taking a more somber tone as the reality of it all sunk in before he finally looked at the official and called a timeout.

"I knew," Bryant said, shaking his head. "For sure."

Bryant had never suffered a torn Achilles tendon before but had heard the horror stories from others who had, and it's one of the easier injuries for players and trainers alike to diagnose on the spot. Quite simply, when that tendon pops and recoils, you know.

"I was just hoping it wasn't what I knew it was," Bryant said. "I tried to walk it off hoping that the sensation would come back but no such luck."

And what was that sensation like? "I had no Achilles," Bryant said. "That's the sensation."

Bryant was trying to get around Harrison Barnes with 3:08 left in the game Friday night and the Los Angeles Lakers trailing the Golden State Warriors 109-107 when he fell to the ground.

Amazingly, Bryant limped back onto the court and made two free throws to tie the score before limping off once again and being helped to the locker room by Lakers center Robert Sacre and team trainer Gary Vitti.

"I made a move I make a million times, and it just popped," Bryant said. "It's a terrible, terrible feeling."

After the game, it was impossible to tell that the Lakers had just defeated the Warriors 118-116 to maintain a one-game lead over the Utah Jazz for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West. If anything, it looked as if the Lakers had just been eliminated from the postseason and were staring into the harsh reality of a long, uncertain offseason.

Players dressed quietly in front of their lockers, answering questions from reporters with soft whispers as if they were speaking at a funeral.

"It's sad to see him go down like this," Dwight Howard said. "He works so hard just to play. ... I could just see it in his face. When you injure yourself to the point where you can't play, it hurts. It's a deep hurt."

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LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Lakers got the win, but they lost the man who pushed them to get there.

Kobe Bryant had beaten the odds all season long, tossing in turn-back-the-clock dunks while racking up statistical achievements that were supposed to be impossible for a 34-year-old in his 17th season until it all came to a crashing halt on Friday.

Even Bryant proved to be not totally indestructible.

After hurting both his left knee and right knee following collisions with Golden State's Festus Ezeli in the third quarter and managing to stay in the game, Bryant took one hit too many and couldn't keep playing in the fourth.

Bryant checked out of the game with 3:06 remaining in the fourth quarter after playing every minute up to that point and did not return. The team announced after the game that Bryant had suffered a probable torn Achilles tendon and that an MRI exam would be performed Saturday. He finished with 34 points.

L.A. won a game it needed to win, but with Bryant out of the lineup going forward, the Lakers will have a major challenge in front of them if they want to reach the playoffs.

How it happened: L.A. erased a nine-point Warriors lead in the second half thanks to some clutch play down the stretch from Steve Blake (14 points, five assists) and Dwight Howard (28 points, seven rebounds), and Carl Landry missed a go-ahead jumper that could have won it for the Warriors.

What it means: Utah started the night with a win against Minnesota, so the Lakers knew what was at stake before tipoff. The Lakers held serve. They lead the Jazz by one game with two left to play. They still control their own destiny.

Hits: Pau Gasol finished with 26 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists to register his sixth career triple-double.

Misses: A game after the Lakers allowed Portland's Damian Lillard to go off for 38, Friday was Stephen Curry's turn to shine. Curry was absolutely on fire, finishing with 47 points on 17-for-31 shooting, including a 9-for-15 mark from 3.

Stat of the game: Howard went into Friday shooting 49 percent from the free throw line this season -- the lowest percentage of his career -- but he had been on a minor upswing recently, shooting 12-for-20 in his previous three games. He made 14 of 22 free throw attempts Friday night.

Up next: Eighty down, two to go. All that's left is Sunday at 6:30 p.m. PT against San Antonio and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. against Houston.

LOS ANGELES -- The past two times Dwight Howard had spoken to the media prior to the Los Angeles Lakers' game against the Golden State Warriors on Friday night -- after the Portland game Wednesday and after shootaround Friday -- he had a clear and direct message to impart.

The Lakers needed to pound the ball inside more to slow down the game.

Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni was asked about Howard's preference before Friday's game, and while he didn't completely disagree with his All-Star center's wishes, he wasn't thrilled by the notion either.

"Where's he playing? Inside? Oh, that's right," D'Antoni with a laugh. "Some of the little guys told me, 'Let's play outside-in!'"

D'Antoni said the team has been working the ball in more to Howard and Pau Gasol already.

"Inside-out is good with our team because we have a big team and we'll do that," D'Antoni said. "We've been doing that. We have slowed it down because we're a slower team. That's OK. But I don't think you come up with these theories to try to figure it out. Once you start trying to figure things out, that's like golf -- 'I got my swing, I figured it out.' That's when you start hooking and slicing and everything else. It doesn't work that way. You play hard."

Holward said after shootaround that going to the post more often and using more shot clock wil help the defense.

"When you slow the game down, teams can't run," Howard said. "When they run, they put you in tough positions because guys got to come out and help in different spots and everybody is scrambling. But when the defense is set, everybody knows where they need to be and you're able to just navigate through an offense. Especially for guys like me, when I'm back and I can see everything, then it's good for our defense. I'm able to talk, I'm able to tell guys where to go. But when you try to get back in transition, the floor is spread, everybody can just drive down the lane and that puts pressure on the bigs. For me, I just try not to get in foul trouble because I'm a very important piece on the defensive end."

On that point, D'Antoni and Howard were in full agreement.

"For us, if we want to be a serious team, then defensively we got to be good on every play," D'Antoni said. "We can't choose and pick and be up and down with the energy. If we do that, then the offense is going to take care of itself."

So does that mean more post-ups?

"When you got Kobe Bryant on the floor, sometimes it's going to be outside-outside," D'Antoni said laughing. "That's just the way it's going to be. We'll try to involve everybody as much as we can, but offensively it's going OK. It's the defensive end that everybody has got to collectively play every play."