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LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Lakers might have been the only NBA team without a representative at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston over the weekend, but general manager Mitch Kupchak says that will change in the future.

"We have our reasons [for not attending] that we'll keep internal," Kupchak told ESPNLosAngeles.com before the Lakers played the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday. "We'll get some feedback and send someone next year."

Kupchak said that the Lakers have never sent a representative from the basketball operations side in the six years the event has been presented. Jeanie Buss, Lakers executive vice president of business operations, was a speaker at the conference last year, however.

Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey started the conference in 2007 after initiating one of the first MBA programs with a sports analytics class in 2004. The purpose of the event is to discuss the way advanced metrics continue to increasingly influence the way in which professional sports organizations make their decisions and do their business.

According to the Toronto Star, 26 of the 29 NBA teams in attendance this year had more than one representative, as Sloan has clearly become an event with some traction around the league.

Not that the Lakers' presence was missed, however.

“If we can keep the Lakers locked out, that’s fine with us,” San Antonio Spurs GM R.C. Buford told The Star.

The 2013 basketball analytics panel of speakers included Buford, Indiana Pacers director of player personnel Kevin Pritchard, Boston Celtics assistant general manager Mike Zarren, former Orlando Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy and ESPN The Magazine senior writer Pablo S. Torre.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- The Los Angeles Lakers have won 12 of their past 17 games to creep back to 29-30, a huge improvement since an air-it-out meeting followed by a loss in Memphis caused them to fall eight games under .500, effectively hitting rock bottom.

"I didn't know if I'd ever get them on the same page," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said after practice Saturday. "We just went through a lot of stuff that we didn't get any traction. … There were a lot of things that just didn't go well. A lot of it was everybody contributing a little bit to things kind of being kind of screwed up. I think we're getting most of those things worked out."

It has been a gradual, if not glacial, process that the Lakers have gone through since D'Antoni was hired more than 3½ months ago.

"You don't want it, but stuff happens. We just got ourselves into a hole with injuries and me being all over the place early and not knowing what's the thing [to do] and people not accepting roles," D'Antoni said. "Obviously, it was a lot harder than anybody thought, but it can be done, and we're going to try to do it.

"It's just trying to figure out what fits better. Obviously, there was some problems before and just trying to figure out what this team needs to win and, I think we're getting a pretty good formula down."

Things have certainly improved in Laker Land. So are the Lakers finally on the same page?

"Um, yeah, it's a big page," D'Antoni said with a laugh. "It's not a small page. It's kind of in the same book. We're in the same book right now. We're getting closer."

The players are aware of the disconnect that's been there.

"A lot of losses and pretty much the way the season has gone is because of our chemistry," Antawn Jamison said.

"It's just all the time we've played together trying to find an identity, and I think we're still trying to figure it out, but the more we play together the more familiar we are," Steve Nash said.

Kobe Bryant said it's understandable why it took so long to come together.

"I think it's always a process when you have so many new guys coming on the roster and a new coaching staff, and then that gets changed and you have a new system that you're trying to implement and the system doesn't quite match the personnel, so new we have to make that adjustment," Bryant said. "It's just been a constant evolution … It's taken awhile, but we've found it, and we're playing a lot better because of it."

And they find themselves with a chance to get back even at .500 with a win against Atlanta on Sunday.

Will it give them a mental lift if they pull it off?

"I'm afraid to think anything," D'Antoni said. "I don't know. I would hope. We've come close before and then stumbled, so we're just going to try to do one game at a time, live in the moment. We know what we got to do and just do it."

LOS ANGELES -- There's no sugarcoating that Steve Blake's time with the Los Angeles Lakers has been mostly a disappointment so far.

Blake signed a four-year, $16 million contract with the Lakers in the summer of 2010 and has yet to live up to the expectations as a player that Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said the team coveted since Blake's pre-draft workout with the team in 2003.

But it hasn't been all Blake's fault.

First there were schematics that worked against him. Both Phil Jackson's triangle offense and Mike Brown's post-up sets did not allow Blake to play his natural flow-based, read-and-react game. Mike D'Antoni's style finally seems to be a fit.

Blake's body has also been to blame.

Blake has been through enough bizarre injuries in his three years with the team to fill a season's worth of scripts for "House, M.D." He had a case of the chicken pox in 2010-11, then dealt with a costrochaondral fracture (a fracture of the cartilage connecting the rib to the sternum) last season. This season he had his training camp derailed when he stepped on a spike strip in a beach parking lot and punctured his foot, and then went on to miss 37 games because of a groin/abdomen injury that required surgery.

However, now the backup point guard is both healthy and confident, and it's showing on the court.

The Lakers' bench scored 52 points in their 116-94 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday. Even though Antawn Jamison was the Lakers' leading scorer as a reserve against the Wolves with 17 points, he credited Blake (13 points, seven rebounds, six assists) as the key reason L.A.'s second unit was anything but second rate.

"That's nice of him," Blake said about Jamison, in his typically understated style.

Blake is averaging 5.3 points and 3.4 assists this season for L.A. -- both his highest marks since joining the team -- and he was even better in February, averaging 5.8 points in 19.0 minutes per game while shooting 46.6 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from 3-point range.

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LOS ANGELES -- In a season full of hard knocks, the Los Angeles Lakers got a little bit of luck on their side when all three teams they're immediately chasing in the standings -- the Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz and Golden State Warriors -- lost on Wednesday.

It was a most fortuitous occurrence, especially with a game coming the next night against the Minnesota Timberwolves -- a team the Lakers had beaten 20 times in a row.

"A little bit early to say lucky," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said before the Wolves game on Thursday. "It’s just the way it went. You watch it and say, ‘Oh, wow,’ and make sure we take care of our business."

And so the Lakers packed up their metaphorical lunch pails and went to work against the Wolves, methodically picking apart the Kevin Love-less 20-35 squad with a heavy dose of Kobe Bryant and a balanced attack behind him.

You make your own luck, as they say.

How it happened: L.A. raced out to a 16-6 lead on 7-for-10 shooting, but Minnesota tied it up at 18-18 with 3:02 remaining in the first quarter. Bryant took over from there, finishing with 33 points (on 13-for-22 shooting), five rebounds, five assists and two steals. The Lakers built a 16-point lead through three quarters and Bryant's night was finished. The Lakers' bench continued to pour it on in the fourth, extending the lead to as many as 25.

What it means: Let the good times roll. The Lakers have now won 12 of their past 17 games and are just two games back of Houston for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot with 23 games left to play.

Time to get some of that purple and gold swagger back.

"I don’t think they feel like they’re underdogs," D'Antoni said before the game. "They just have to focus in on what they’re doing, but when they get on the court they do not feel inferior or think it’s an upset. I think when Kobe wins, he doesn’t feel, ‘Oh boy, we upset that good guy.’ I don’t think that happens."

Hits: Bryant is averaging 35.0 points on 60.9 percent shooting in the Lakers' past four games.

The Lakers' bench trio of Jodie Meeks (16 points), Antawn Jamison (17 points) and Steve Blake (13 points) combined to score 46 points on 16-for-28 shooting (57.1 percent).

All of the Lakers starters (save for Earl Clark) were able to call it a night with 5:03 remaining in the fourth and the Lakers up by 23.

Misses: Metta World Peace was informed before the game that his hit on Denver's Kenneth Faried on Monday was retroactively upgraded to a flagrant foul 2. World Peace now has five flagrant foul points on the season. Should that total reach six, he will serve an automatic one-game suspension.

Oh, and World Peace shot just 2-for-7 from the field in the game.

The Lakers had a hard time integrating Dwight Howard into the offense, as he finished with 11 points on 5-for-6 shooting. He added 13 rebounds and four blocks, however.

Stat of the game: Maybe the Lakers were inspired by Stephen Curry's 54-point magical night at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. The Lakers shot 16-for-32 as a team on 3-pointers, ending one shy of their franchise record of 17 3s in a regulation game, which they tied last Nov. 30 against the Nuggets.

What's next: The Lakers can get back to .500 on Sunday with a win over the Atlanta Hawks at home before they head out for back-to-back road games at Oklahoma City and New Orleans next week.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- The Black Mamba has already shed his skin several times this season as Kobe Bryant transformed from the league's leading scorer to one of its most effective passers.

In the last three games, Bryant seems to have finally settled into his ideal version of himself to help this Los Angeles Lakers team win.

Bryant is averaging 35.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and 6.7 assists on 59.7 percent shooting in his last three games, as the Lakers have gone 2-1.

"I think I just found a balance," Bryant said after practice Wednesday. "I think as a team we found a balance in terms of me being able to keep them involved but still being able to find my rhythm. I told you guys I wasn't really too concerned with my scoring, I would be able to find a rhythm and do both and I've done that."

Just like when Bryant made the switch to "Magic Mamba" and channeled Magic Johnson as he doled out 39 assists over the course of three games in late January and L.A. went 3-0, his recent uptick in scoring wasn't preceded by a planned-out discussion with his coach.

"The conversation is always the same, 'Be aggressive,' " Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said. "He has to read the situation and how he feels physically and how they're playing him. There's a lot of things that go into it. It-s hard to pre-determine how to play, but during the game you have to understand when you want to be aggressive to the hole or aggressive to passing and trying not to blur the two. It's not the easiest thing in the world, but I think he’s doing a good job."

Steve Nash, who has had to shift in reverse with Bryant -- going from distributor to scorer, instead of the other way around -- said he figured Bryant would return to his scoring self eventually.

"The odds were that it was coming because he hadn't made his shots for a while, which is very uncharacteristic," Nash said. "Some poor souls were going to take the brunt of that Murphy's Law."

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- In the case of Pau Gasol's torn plantar fascia in his right foot, no news is good news.

Gasol saw Dr. Steve Yoon on Tuesday and underwent an ultrasound test that confirmed his foot is healing at a satisfactory rate, causing the team to clear Gasol to start working out on the elliptical machine.

Gasol has been providing updates of his own on Twitter, writing in recent days he was "feeling better and making progress," posting a photo of his foot covered in kinesiology tape and pointing out that Tuesday marked three weeks since he hurt his foot in game against the Brooklyn Nets.

The original timeframe Gasol was expected to be out was six to eight weeks, something that Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said hasn't changed.

"I don’t think it’s moved up any, but he’s doing well," D'Antoni said after practice Wednesday.

The Lakers have gone 5-4 in Gasol’s absence.

Will the Los Angeles Lakers make the playoffs?

That's really the only pertinent question for the boys in purple and gold these days.

All the other queries that surround them -- What's the state of Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard's relationship? When is Pau Gasol coming back? Is Mike D'Antoni the right coach for this group? -- merely funnel into that same, fundamental question.

The Lakers are 28-30 with 24 games to play, good for ninth place in the Western Conference -- three games behind the Houston Rockets for the final postseason berth.

D'Antoni said after the All-Star break that the Lakers would need to go at least 20-8 (.714 winning percentage) to ensure a spot in the playoffs. Since then, Bryant has guaranteed the Lakers will be playing past the regular-season finale April 17, and L.A. has gone 3-1 in its past four games.

The four-game improved stretch can be extended back to include 11 wins for L.A. in its past 16 games. However, the five losses in that stretch have been by an average of 14.4 points, including the Lakers' 11-point loss Monday in Denver in a game in which they trailed by as many as 18 points.

The Denver loss dropped the Lakers to just 1-10 this season on the road against the eight teams in the West currently slated to make the playoffs, which only punctuates L.A.'s paltry 10-19 overall road record.

For argument's sake, let's say that trend continues and the Lakers go 0-3 on the road the remainder of the way against the Western Conference teams ahead of them in the standings -- losing in Oklahoma City on March 5, at Golden State on March 25 (the one team ahead of them in the West they actually have beaten on the road this season, in Steve Nash's return from a leg injury Dec. 22) and to the L.A. Clippers in a "road" game at Staples Center on April 7.

That leaves us with 21 games left to consider and the Lakers needing 17 wins in those games to reach D'Antoni's magic number of 45 wins.

The 12 home games are: Minnesota, Atlanta, Toronto, Chicago, Sacramento, Washington, Dallas, Memphis, New Orleans, Golden State, San Antonio and Houston.

The Lakers are 10-10 (.500) so far this season against those teams. So, even though the Lakers have gone 18-11 (.621) at home so far, those 12 games shouldn't be a cakewalk. Let's split the difference between the two percentages, and say the Lakers win .561 of their remaining home games and go 7-5.

That would put their record at 35-38, with the nine remaining road games to consider.

Even if they went 9-0 in those games (at New Orleans, Atlanta, Orlando, Indiana, Phoenix, Minnesota, Milwaukee, Sacramento and Portland), they would not reach D'Antoni's stated goal of 45 wins to make the playoffs. Plus, 9-0 isn't really realistic when you consider the Lakers are just 8-5 (.615) against those teams so far this season. If they play .615 ball against them, you're talking about them winning five or six of those games. Let's say they get six; that brings their record to 41-41.

ESPN.com's Kevin Pelton puts the Lakers' magic number at 43 wins needed to consider the postseason.

That would require the Lakers to go 15-9 the rest of the way, or to find two more wins out of the three scenarios explained above -- maybe going 1-2 in those road games against Western playoff teams, or going 8-4 in their remaining home games or 7-2 in those other nine road games.

Meanwhile, the three teams the Lakers are chasing to get into the playoffs -- Houston, Golden State and Utah -- would have a much easier path to get to 43.

Writes Pelton:

"The Lakers can do their part and still be eliminated because the three teams ahead of them -- the Rockets, the Golden State Warriors and the Utah Jazz -- need only go .500 to get to at least 43 wins. In fact, the simulation shows the Lakers aren't really guaranteed a playoff spot unless they get to 47 wins. So there will be plenty of scoreboard watching for the Lakers, whose playoff hopes might go down after a win if their competitors are also victorious."

And all of this isn't even mentioning the possibility of Bryant picking up three more technical fouls and being suspended for a game or Howard tweaking that right shoulder of his and having to sit out with his torn labrum, as has happened two times already.

Will the Lakers make the playoffs? It's too early to know. But it's certainly not too soon to see just how difficult the road will be for them to get there.

The NBA rescinded the technical foul assessed to Kobe Bryant in Monday's 119-108 loss to the Denver Nuggets, the Lakers announced Tuesday.

Bryant told reporters after the game that he was confident the technical foul -- which would have been his 14th on the season -- would be rescinded after speaking with referee Joey Crawford and coming to agreement that the tech was a result of a misunderstanding between Bryant and the official.

Even with the T being rescinded, Bryant's technical foul total for the season stands at 13. If Bryant reaches 16 techs on the season, he will receive a one-game suspension from the league. Should the Lakers reach the playoffs, his total will be reset.

Bryant has toed the technical foul line before, picking up 16 in 2010-11, 14 in 2009-10, 15 in 2007-08, 14 in 2006-07, 15 in 2005-06, and 14 in 2001-02.

DENVER -- Amnesty THAT … game?

After rallying for an emotional win in Dallas Sunday afternoon, then having a little fun at Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's suggestion that the Lakers should use the amnesty clause on the final year and $30.5 million of his contract, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers had a game to forget against the Denver Nuggets Monday night, losing 119-108.

The loss snapped the Lakers' modest three-game win streak out of the All-Star break and dropped them two games below .500 and three games behind the Houston Rockets for eighth place in the Western Conference.

Bryant missed six of his first seven shots and picked up his league-leading 14th technical foul of the season on his way off the court at the end of the first half. He eventually found his scoring stroke, finishing with 29 points on 12-for-23 shooting and nine assists. But Denver's high-octane attack was just too much, too fast and too relentless for the Lakers to overcome.

Wilson Chandler had 23 points and Ty Lawson added 22 to lead Denver, which improved to 24-3 at home -- tied with the Miami Heat for the best home mark in the league.

How it happened: The Nuggets controlled the pace of this game from the start and basically ran the Lakers off the court in the first half, scoring 22 fast-break points and 48 of their 67 first-half points in the paint while shooting 56.3 percent from the field.

The Lakers stayed as close as they did because they shot 60 percent from the field in the first half. But Denver had 13 more field goal attempts (48-35) and was able to build a 13-point lead at the break that proved insurmountable for the Lakers.

What it means: The Lakers (28-30) had a chance to get back to .500 on the season and to close to within two games of idle Houston, but this loss put them right back where they were at the start of this trip and helped Denver (36-22) inch closer to the fourth-place Memphis Grizzlies (37-18).

Hits: Steve Nash continues to look for his own shot, this time finishing with 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting. He has been dealing with a sore lower back for the past week, but has obviously learned to manage it well.

"He plays through everything," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said of Nash before the game. "He might struggle out there a little bit, but just his brains and his ability to do things. Even if he's struggling, he'll find a way to be positive, and that's kind of what we need."

Misses: The Lakers fell back into a lot of the bad habits and game play that plagued them earlier in the season, turning the ball over far too much (15), failing to get back in transition and missing too many free throws. The Lakers were 14-for-31 from the free throw line. Dwight Howard made just three of his 14 attempts.

Stat of the game: The Nuggets were off to the races Monday night; the Lakers were mostly spectators. Denver averages 19.2 fast-break points per game. It had 22 fast-break points in the first half and 33 in the game.

What's next: The Lakers get a day off Tuesday and a practice day on Wednesday before hosting the Minnesota Timberwolves Thursday night at Staples Center. The rest couldn't come at a better time for three veterans -- Steve Nash (back), Kobe Bryant (shoulder) and Antawn Jamison (wrist) -- who are nursing injuries.

DENVER -- Kobe Bryant said he expects the NBA to rescind the technical foul that referee Joey Crawford called on him for arguing a non-call near the end of the first half of Monday night's 119-108 loss to the Denver Nuggets.

It was Bryant's league-leading 14th technical foul of the season. A player is suspended for one game upon picking up a 16th technical. After that, the suspensions come after every subsequent technical foul (18, 20, etc.).

"That [technical] will be rescinded," Bryant said after the game. "Joey didn't know what was going on with that. Me and the [other] ref, were just having a civil conversation. He [Crawford] kind of jumped the gun."

Bryant said he and Crawford talked about the play after halftime, and "he marked it down."

If Bryant is wrong, if the technical foul isn't rescinded, he can pick up only one more technical in the Lakers' final 25 games to avoid a suspension.

"He knows we can't afford to lose him for a game," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said. "He's a pretty headstrong guy."

Bryant has toed that line several times in his 17-year career but only hit it once, in the 2010-11 season. He stopped short in 2001-02 (14 technicals), 2005-06 (15), 2006-07 (14), 2007-08 (15) and 2009-10 (14).

After picking up his 13th technical foul in Sunday's win over the Dallas Mavericks, Bryant vowed once again that it won't be an issue.

Asked how he manages to push the envelope but never go too far, Bryant said, "I just don't get 'em. I just don't do it. It's that simple."

DALLAS -- Dirk Nowitzki's facial hair says the same thing Kobe Bryant said aloud earlier this week: The Lakers and Dallas Mavericks are desperate to make the playoffs.

"We're both fighting for our lives," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said before Sunday's game at the American Airlines Center.

Both superstars played like it Sunday, going at each other in a wonderfully feisty duel that the Lakers pulled out, 103-99.

After scoring 40 in a win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night, Bryant flirted with a triple-double Sunday, finishing with 38 points on 13-for-21 shooting, 12 rebounds and seven assists.

Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 30 points on 11-for-19 shooting and 13 rebounds, but Dallas just didn't get enough from its supporting cast. Dallas' four other starters had just 21 points.

Steve Nash had a season-high 20 points, including a clutch 3-pointer with 1:44 to go that gave the Lakers a 99-95 lead.

How it happened: Bryant put the Lakers on his back once again, scoring 38 points after dropping 40 on the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night.

The Lakers continued a recent run of solid production from their bench as Antawn Jamison (13), Jodie Meeks (11) and Steve Blake (five points) gave them a nice lift and made up for an awful game by Metta World Peace, who was held scoreless until the final minute of the game and finished with just one point on 0-for-6 shooting.

Dallas' backcourt continued to let it down as Darren Collison and O.J. Mayo combined for only 15 points and shot just 5-for-20 from the field.

What it means: The Lakers and Mavericks have won three of the past four NBA titles, but if the playoffs started today, both would miss the playoffs for the first time since the 1993-94 season. Unacceptable for two proud franchises. With Houston off today, both teams had a chance to gain some ground.

The Lakers' win put them two and a half games behind the Rockets. Dallas is now four and a half games back.

Hits: Nash bounced back from his awful 2-for-11 shooting performance Friday night with 20 points on 7-for-12 shooting. Nash tweaked his lower back early in Friday's loss and wasn't effective running the pick and roll, or fluid with his shot. It's nothing Nash hasn't dealt with before, though, and he was clearly recovered by Sunday's game.

Misses: Dwight Howard got into early foul trouble and never really got going offensively in this game. After averaging 21.5 points and 14 rebounds in his past two games, Howard finished with just nine points and 13 rebounds against the Mavs.

Stat of the night: Bryant picked up his league-leading 13th technical in the first half. Three more and he'll be suspended for a game. He always pushes that envelope and stops just short. We'll see if he's as disciplined this season.

What's next: The Lakers will fly into the teeth of a snowstorm that's hitting Denver on Sunday night. It won't be much easier when they get to the Pepsi Center on Monday night, where the Nuggets' 23-3 home record is tied with the Miami Heat for the best in the NBA.

LOS ANGELES -- It was easy to summon the kind of emotion and passion that would have made their late, great owner Dr. Jerry Buss proud and get a win over the Boston Celtics on Wednesday.

It was easy to back up Kobe Bryant's playoff guarantee at shootaround on Friday.

But Friday night it was back to the reality of a season where nothing has come easy, as the Lakers needed all of Kobe Bryant's 40 points to eke out a close 111-107 win over the Portland Trail Blazers at Staples Center.

Bryant hit 15 of his 23 shots and all nine of his free throws to lead the Lakers to their second straight win. Dwight Howard added 19 points and 16 rebounds, even though he re-injured his right shoulder near the end of the first half.

J.J. Hickson and Nicolas Batum each had 22 points for Portland, which lost its seventh straight game.

How it happened: Once again the Lakers let a struggling young team gain confidence and shoot the lights out in the first half (51 percent).

But Bryant kept them in it with 18 points in the third quarter, and the Lakers finally pulled it out late in the fourth with several key defensive stands and four clutch free throws by Bryant over the final 12.9 seconds to preserve the win.

What it means: The Lakers have known for a while now they need to win about 70 percent of their remaining 27 games. There is very little room for error anymore. Games like this one -- against a Trail Blazer team they'd finally passed in the Western Conference standings -- are essentially must-wins if the Lakers have any hope of getting into the playoffs.

Hits: Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni revealed before Friday's game that Kobe Bryant has been dealing with a shoulder injury and said it may have been the cause of his 1-for-35 shooting on 3-pointers coming into the game.

Bryant might be in pain, but it didn't show in his performance Friday. He scored 29 of his game-high 40 points in the second half, keeping the Lakers in the game just when it seemed as if the Blazers might steal this one.

Misses: Steve Nash had a terrible shooting night, missing nine of his first 10 shots, and finishing with just four points on 2-for-11 shooting. He even missed a technical foul shot late in the fourth quarter. You know it's bad when Steve Nash is missing free throws.

Stat of the night: For once the Lakers got a lift from their second unit as Antawn Jamison (16) and Jodie Meeks (10) combined to outscore Portland's reserves, 26-14.

What's next: The Lakers head to Dallas for an early game on Sunday (10 a.m.), when Bryant can share his thoughts -- or respond as he sees fit on the court -- to Mavericks owner Mark Cuban after his comments Friday that the team should consider whether to amnesty the final year and $30 million on his contract.

LOS ANGELES -- What better way could the Los Angeles Lakers honor their late owner, Dr. Jerry Buss, than by sticking it to their bitter rivals in the Boston Celtics?

In what was an emotional night from the start with the Lakers paying tribute to Buss with a pregame ceremony led by Kobe Bryant, they were able to ride the energy in the building to a rout.

"The way you got to approach it is just as a tribute to him to go out and play as hard as you can and turn the emotion into something positive," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said before the game. "It will be a nice tribute on a sad occasion."

It was an important win for L.A., and not just because of the Buss connection or because it avenged the 21-point beatdown they suffered in Beantown at the beginning of the month. The victory got the Lakers out of the gate on the right foot after the All-Star break.

D'Antoni put the pressure on his team Tuesday, proclaiming they would have to go at least 20-8 in the final stretch of the season to realize their goal of making the playoffs.

They're 1-0 so far. Pulling off a 19-8 record the rest of the way is no sure bet, but it's a heck of a lot more believable than them going 20-7 had they laid an egg Wednesday.

How it happened: L.A. came out sharp, scoring 36 points in the first quarter on 52.2 percent shooting from the field. They kept the effort up all night, leading by as many as 22 and earning a standing ovation as they left the court at the end of the game.

What it means: If Howard truly is the future of the Lakers' franchise, as general manager Mitch Kupchak said Wednesday morning, then maybe the purple and gold will be in better shape than some fans thought. Howard has repeatedly said all that matters for him and for his team is right now, and he finally played as if there were no tomorrow. The All-Star center scored 12 of his team-high 24 points (on 10-for-13 shooting) in the first quarter and added 12 rebounds and a block. If he can make this a nightly performance, Kupchak will have good reason for wanting him to stick around.

Hits: Earl Clark grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds to go along with his 14 points.

Clark was one of seven Lakers players to score in double-digits.

Steve Nash dished out seven assists, passing Lakers legend Magic Johnson for fourth on the NBA's all-time assist list, giving him 10,144 for his career.

Misses: Bryant picked up his 12th technical foul of the season. Should that total reach 16, Bryant would have to serve a one-game suspension. There are 27 games left in the regular season after Wednesday.

Stat of the night: L.A. outscored Boston 54-30 on points in the paint.

What's next: The Lakers will have a brief practice Thursday before attending Buss' funeral as a team in the afternoon at Nokia Theatre. Their next game is Friday at home against the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Lakers paid tribute to Dr. Jerry Buss before Wednesday night's game against the Celtics at Staples Center. Buss, who owned the team since 1979, died Monday.

David Stern will retire as NBA commissioner next spring after a long run with the league that started full time when he was hired as the NBA's general counsel in 1978, one year before Dr. Jerry Buss bought the Los Angeles Lakers.

Both the Lakers and the league as a whole experienced incredible growth and success in that time and Stern and Buss developed a strong friendship.

Stern called in to the "Mason & Ireland Show" on ESPNLA 710 radio on Tuesday to share his memories of Dr. Buss:

In regards to what made Buss a great sports owner, in his opinion:

“Well, he used those numbers and other intuitive features to judge basketball players and to judge those who work for him. We must not forget, Jerry West and Mitch Kupchak have done quite well for Jerry and in addition, as a business man, he understood what it would do to raise ticket prices to the Forum, to give Magic (Johnson) a contract that was outsized by any standard and he used those talents to learn everything there was to learn and make many suggestions about our league and how it should be run.”

On how the NBA would be different had there not been Buss' influence:

“I don’t know whether he led it, or innovated it, or he just flat out changed everything because we’ll never know, but for example, he looked at ticket prices and told us that everybody was pricing the best seats in the house wrong. The supply was limited and the demand would be unlimited and he changed the pricing structure. Would we ultimately have reached that conclusion a decade or so later? Maybe, probably, but he led it and then one fine day, long before there was a salary cap, Jerry thought it’d be a good idea to pay Magic Johnson a million dollars a year for 25 years, an outrageous amount of money that caused some owners to seriously consider selling their teams because this was so nuts. Of course it wasn’t nuts at all, it was, as Jerry said, he was making even a bigger star out of Magic and he realized what Magic could do with the franchise. There were many examples like that, Jerry did them all.”

In regards to how Buss was able to sell his ideas to other owners in league, ex: Laker girls, seating prices, etc.:

"I don’t think he forced his will; he led by example. I don’t remember any blow back on ticket pricing, just a lot of scratching of heads. On the Laker girls, my goodness gracious, I always say that Red Auerbach had the Celtics as the last team that didn’t have cheerleaders. And on the day they were supposed to launch, Red decided it was time to leave this Earth. Go check the records, Red was consistent for all of those years. He didn’t think there should be cheerleaders and he used to push at me for not being strong enough, or whatever it was. That was his pet peeve, but Jerry did it by example. ... With the business of basketball, and even though it says he didn’t meddle, I think that it’s fair also to say that he was the basketball presence of the Lakers, as well, because all decisions went through him. "

In relation to the Chris Paul trade and whether it was an issue with Buss:

“Not even an issue. We had a discussion about why he thought it was good for his team to do what they planned to do and someday I’ll tell everyone what he said about that, but then he also said he understood what I did and there was no rancor of any kind and we had … because we have been having a steady of conversation about collective bargaining and revenue sharing -- because of course Jerry was quite interested in that subject because much of it could be sought to be directed at the Lakers, because they were the largest-grossing team and other teams were going to be sharing in some of that and they were going to be, if they kept their payroll intact, the largest payer of tax because the tax was going up. But Jerry understood that it was in the best interest of the league and his wish was that his partners treated the Lakers fairly because he had always been a good league man.”

In relation to when Stern first saw greatness in Buss:

“It’s just a solid business acumen, time after time. Player drafting, player signing, business practices, being a fixture on the advisory finance committee, being a fixture on important collective bargaining committees and throughout it all, all I can tell you is, he took great pride in what his children were doing and even though I hear the word flamboyant, he was actually, people would find this hard to believe, a modest intellectual to me at many times and he was a thorough delight to have as a friend and an owner.”