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Another road game, another loss for the Lakers. They led early Monday night in Philly, but after a hot start from Kobe Bryant (good enough to pass Shaquille O'Neal for fifth on the all-time scoring list before the half was up), the Lakers slowed down in the second half while Philadelphia warmed up.

Final score, 95-90.

There was much to discuss on tonight's episode of Lakers Late Night, and discuss much we did. Including...

• Bryant passing Shaq on the all-time scoring list.
• Bryant's game against Philly. Red hot to start, ice cold to finish. What was the impact not just of the final numbers but how Kobe got there?
• The Lakers have myriad problems, but their Big Three aren't high on the list.
• Looking ahead to the Boston game Thursday evening.

All that, plus some interesting shootaround comments from Bryant.

Since starting the season 1-2, the Philadelphia 76ers have ripped off 16 wins in 21 games and vaulted to the top of the Atlantic Division with the third-best record in the Eastern Conference. The results are no fluke. Last season, the Sixers started 5-14, and at one point were slogging along at 15-23. From there, they went 25-13 before a late swoon left them at .500 heading into the playoffs.

Signs certainly pointed to Philly as a potential team on the rise, and this year they've definitely made a major leap. While the Sixers lack a definitive go-to scorer, coach Doug Collins has plenty of effective offensive weapons at his disposal. Not that it matters all that much, since Philadelphia is the league's best defensive team through the first third (give or take) of the year.

And, as Kobe Bryant pointed out after the loss in Utah on Saturday, the Sixers are young and fast, representing a major challenge for the "old, slow" Lakers. To gain a little more insight into the surging Sixers, we hit up Carey Smith of Philadunkia, part of ESPN.com's TrueHoop network, with some questions:

Land O'Lakers: By nearly every metric, the Sixers are the league's stingiest defense. What accounts for their success?

Smith: First and foremost, it’s the 76ers' commitment to playing defense that is the key. Doug Collins has gotten these guys to buy in to the idea that you have to play solid team defense to win in the league, and given the results when compared to the brief-but-disastrous Eddie Jordan era, Collins is 100 percent correct. The other factor is that the Sixers have some phenomenal perimeter defenders in Andre Iguodala, Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner. Add in Thad Young (another solid defender), and you have a nice collection of players who can make it really difficult for the opposing team’s guards and wings to score the ball.

Land O'Lakers: The team's leading scorer is Lou Williams, who comes off the bench, but nine players average more than nine points a game. Is this a reflection more of a great team-first ethic or the lack of a true go-to scorer?

Smith: Great question. Honestly my answer is it is a chicken-or-the-egg situation. Collins preaches team, team, team, and then still more team, and the Sixers have played that way very successfully over the last two seasons. They do a great job with the little things that make balanced scoring work -- making the extra pass or setting screens for each other or rotating the ball quickly or finding the hot hand. But if Collins had a superstar like he did, say, in Chicago with that guy named Jordan, I wonder if the offense would flow the same way.

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Like the rest of us, Kobe Bryant doesn't necessarily understand why he was single covered by Evan Turner with the game on the line in Friday's 102-98 win over the Sixers at Staples.

He talks about how Philadelphia defended him, and more:



Click below for additional postgame reaction, including videos and quotes from Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, Lamar Odom, Phil Jackson, and more.

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Let's make one thing clear: There is absolutely no reason Friday night's game should have come down to a Lou Williams 3-pointer with under five seconds to play.

Maybe the Lakers hoped to kick off their 2011 before finishing all the business of 2010?

In the end, the Staples faithful got their free tacos ... but they won't taste as good as free tacos should. Here's how it broke down:

Three Up:

1. Kobe Bryant. He had it going tonight, no question, and did most of his damage heading to the basket, whether catching in the post and victimizing (at different points) Jodie Meeks or Philly rookie Evan Turner or working off the high screen to create penetration. On some nights, the opposition will throw the kitchen sink at Bryant in an effort to force the ball from his hands. Tonight, though, Doug Collins generally chose to play it straight, perhaps hoping to turn Bryant into a volume shooter. Didn't work, as Bryant was able to pile up a host of quality looks, often against fairly helpless defenders. In the first half, Bryant scored his first bucket on a nearly uncontested finger roll driving the lane. Later, he'd posterize Andres Nocioni with a hard two-handed jam, again taking advantage of a lane parting before him like Moses at the Red Sea.

I realize Charles Barkley keeps saying Bryant isn't the same guy he used to be, but he's not exactly geriatric. Gotta stop the ball, people!

In the second half, when the Sixers made the game much closer than it should have been, Bryant was able to continue getting good shots from places he likes to shoot. Mid-range jumpers, working the pull up. Bryant did have a few moments in the first half when his game got a little showy -- an ill-advised three and some unnecessarily fancy ballhandling, and a fourth quarter TO with 1:30 to play helped the Sixers tie the score, but he more than made up for it on the next trip with a strong drive on Turner, pulling up for a big baseline jumper, then icing the game with two late free throws. The final line was a very controlled 33 points on 13-of-24 from the field.

I asked Kobe if he was surprised the Sixers played him so straight. "Different teams have different principles," he said. "Some come all out and double, some try to zone up. Tonight, they had guys there. They were waiting on penetration, or kind of just playing a zone. But when my mid-range jumper is going, you've gotta come get me." I get the pick-your-poison dilemma teams face against the Lakers, particularly one like Philly, undersized and particularly vulnerable when they sell out on one player... but how on earth do you leave Evan Turner alone on Kobe Bryant on a critical trip in the final minute?

That's just not fair to the kid.

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One win doesn't exactly clean up the mess made by the Lakers during a three game losing streak including embarrassing losses not just to top shelf contenders like Miami and San Antonio, but a middling Milwaukee squad as well. Still, Wednesday's victory over the Hornets in New Orleans did back a lot of fans off the ledge, and did plenty of good for the team's psyche as well.

Friday they're back at it against a Philly squad they beat two weeks ago during the long road trip, but are in position to take nothing for granted, which is probably a good thing.

Here's what to watch...

1. Philadelphia isn't a 13-19 team.

Technically, of course, they are. Keep in mind, though, they started 3-13, so the Sixers arrive at Staples a vastly improved team winning 10 of their last 16, in important news relative to Friday's game, are no longer pushovers on the road. Over the first six games of what will become an eight game trip, the Sixers have a respectable three wins, including games in Orlando, Denver and Phoenix, and a very narrow loss last week in Boston.

The Lakers are definitely the better team, but as it was a couple weeks ago when the Lakers played the Sixers in Philly, this isn't a team to be trifled with.

One reason is balance. Without anyone posting more than Jrue Holiday's 14.8, Philly sports seven guys averaging 8.9 points or better during December. By contrast, the Lakers have four. While it means Philly could be short a defined go-to guy should the game come down to the final seconds (I'd still put a body on Andre Iguodala, just to be safe), it also makes it tough to key on any one player. The Sixers don't exactly pile up points, but will force the Lakers to be honest defensively.

Again, probably a good thing.

2. Andrew Bynum Starts, Part Deux.

Wednesday in New Orleans, the Lakers managed something rarely seen in this day of ubiquitous media, athlete Twitter feeds, and nearly instant dissemination of information: They took everyone by surprise. With the team on the skids, Phil Jackson pulled the cord on the Andrew Bynum chute, sticking him back in the starting lineup earlier than most expected, especially based on Bynum's own forecasts. "We knew we were gonna have to make this move eventually, getting Drew out there on the floor," Jackson said Thursday. Nothing like three straight 15-plus point losses to jimmy a timetable, right? Jackson said he expected a "getting to know you" period, but was pleased at how well Bynum played, and the response of the team generally. As well he should have been, since Bynum had a great game, scoring 18 points on eight-of-12 from the floor, and the Lakers torched the Hornets.

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Phil Jackson mentioned after the Christmas debacle his hopes for a strong 2010 finish. Were Santa open to a second round of letters, there would be a boatload of purple and gold stationary en route to the North Pole echoing these sentiments. Hopefully, the Lakers won't count on the power of leftover elf magic to get the job done.

Game of the Week

Tuesday at San Antonio, 5:30 p.m. PT

Some might argue Phil Jackson, one step removed from a doctor's note excusing his team from the Christmas game, did little to motivate a group already in cruise control. Still, PJ was correct in downplaying the importance of the Heat matchup compared to the back-to-back roadies around the corner, games within the conference and holding playoff seeding in the balance.

In particular, Tuesday's game has some marbles at stake.

Brian recently laid out numbers illustrating the potential difficulties facing the Lakers in a Three-Peat quest as a two-seed or lower. (I don't personally value the home-court advantage as heavily, but would still rather have it, given a choice.) As it stands, the two-time defending champs sit five games behind the Spurs for first place in the Western Conference with 52 games remaining. Is this an insurmountable hill to climb? No, but we've also officially reached the "no more dillydallying" point. The gap will increase or decrease one full game after the final horn and the Lakers can't afford to be on the bad end of a big swing.

You know how certain apartments are listed as "Beverly Hills adjacent," because that sounds more glamorous? Well, this game may not truly be "must win" for the Lakers, but it is certainly "must win adjacent" in the grand scheme of locking up the best seed possible.

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It's a standard mantra for coaches: To win in this league, you need to go out and play 48 minutes of solid basketball.

To whatever extent such words are true, the Lakers absolutely took a torch to them Friday night in Philadelphia, working through three sloppy quarters before laying the hammer down on the 76ers and pulling away over the final 12 minutes. While it was hardly a work of high (or middle, or low) art, it was a win, L.A.'s fourth in a row after opening the road portion of the road trip with a loss to the Bulls in Chicago.

Given the Medusa-like quality of the night's proceedings, I suspect many of you weren't able to look directly at the game. And since watching television in the reflection of a highly polished bronze shield is hardly practical, it might be necessary to fill in some gaps. With that in mind, here's how it broke down ...

THREE UP:

1. Lamar Odom: On a night when Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol combined to shoot nine-of-25 from the floor for a fully pedestrian 28 points (many of which came for Gasol late, when the game was already decided), Odom flat out rescued the Lakers. He was 11-of-18 from the field for 28 points, plus eight rebounds, three assists, a steal and -- this is important, as you'll see below -- only one turnover in a game-high 42 minutes of play. In the second (nine points) and fourth (13) he was the engine driving L.A.'s attack. No shock the Lakers as a team scored 61 points in those two quarters, and 32 in the first and third. Best of all, Odom did his damage primarily by attacking the rim, either off the dribble or with good post position.

"Lamar really kind of settled us in," coach Phil Jackson told reporters after the game. To say the least.

Particularly encouraging was how well Odom played with the second unit. It's with those guys where, quite soon, he'll be getting even more run than he does now.

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The Lakers have looked awfully good in two games since Andrew Bynum returned to the lineup after offseason knee surgery, as Pau Gasol seems to have had new life breathed into him. Good thing, too, because the Lakers have some stiff challenges coming in the weeks and months ahead.

Still, there's work to be done in the here and now, starting tonight in Philadelphia, known first as the hometown of ESPNLA's own Dave McMenamin, but also cheese steaks, the Liberty Bell, and Kobe Bryant.

Oh, and the Sixers, too. Philly carries an underwhelming 10-15 record into tonight's game, but like many of these road tussles through the Eastern Conference, the apparent badness of the opponent is at least somewhat misleading. The Sixers have been wretched on the road (2-10), but are 8-5 at home including wins in seven of their last eight at Wells Fargo Center*, the only blemish being a last second, one point loss to the highly credible Boston Celtics. All seven of the wins were by nine points or more.

The Sixers have a lot of talent, from Jrue Holiday to Andre Iguodala to the newly revitalized Elton Brand and Thaddeus Young. Philly is 5-2 since adding sharpshooter Jodie Meeks to the starting lineup, in no small part because Meeks has hit half of the triples he's attempted over that time.

The moral of the story: Don't screw around with these guys. To get a little more insight into how tonight's game might play out, I hit up Carey Smith over at Philadunkia to answer a few questions about his hometown squad:

1) Jrue Holiday is obviously a player of interest around these parts, and seems to have made some strides this season. Do the numbers tell the story? Where has he improved, and where does he still need work?

The numbers tell part of the story as his stats have certainly improved, but the big thing in my opinion for Holiday is that adapting to the system Doug Collins has installed has made him a better player. There was no system under Eddie Jordan and when he finally got in the lineup last year, Holiday just went out and played every night. Some times with spectacular results, other nights not so great. It took about 10 games or so and at times it’s still a work in progress, but Holiday is so much better this year because he has some direction from a good coach and he has bought in to what Collins wants done offensively.

While he has taken great strides forward across the board in 2010-11, the one thing I would say that Holiday needs to improve on is his decision making on the fast break. On the break he still has a tendency make mistakes -- getting caught in between moves or driving the ball too deep or simply throwing the ball away. Most nights the Sixers want to get out and run on opponents, so these issues can be costly. Once he gets this ironed out, he’s going to be scary good.

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Under normal circumstances, I might say four games against teams with a combined record of 34-57 would be a formality. A near-waste of virtual ink, so assured were Lakers wins.

These are not normal circumstances.

The Lakers have been positively ordinary since charging through the first eight games like a Real Housewife of Beverly Hills at Saks Fifth Avenue. Their 9-7 record since the hot start is at best underwhelming, especially considering the nonet includes a grand total of one win against a squad with a winning record (Nov. 23 vs. Chicago), and totally uninspired efforts like their squeaker against the Clippers and the tougher-than-required win over a poor New Jersey team Sunday afternoon.

The giddiness of early November, when some wondered if maybe this whole 70 win thing might actuallyhappen, has given way to questions about whether the Lakers will equal last year's 57. Sunday's victory puts them on pace for 58 -- basically a wash -- and as we've all noted, their schedule has been almost absurdly easy. Only four games (Denver, Utah, and two vs. Chicago) against teams opening Monday's action with a plus-.500 record. For the record, they lost three of those four. It adds up to the the league's easiest slate of games. The Lakers haven't played 20-3 San Antonio or 19-4 Dallas. Or Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Boston, Miami, Orlando or Atlanta.

Big picture, the challenge in front of them is stiff. All sorts of things are in question, not simply the NBA's best record and home court advantage throughout the playoffs. The idea that the Lakers would finish the regular season with the top seed in the Western Conference has since this summer generally been treated like a foregone conclusion. Given their current level of play and, more importantly, the brutality of their schedule over the final 58 games, it shouldn't be. In a very competitive league, the Lakers are in danger of letting a great many things slip away, or at the very least, making the process of holding on to said things a whole lot more difficult.

They can't afford to lose much more ground, particularly when matched up against the Association's weak sisters. A nice dovetail to this week's . . .

. . . Little picture, the challenge in front of them is stiff. All sorts of things are in question, most revolving around the team's ability to play with relative consistency for 48 minutes, whether against good, mediocre, or poor competition. "We're not finishing games," Phil Jackson said Sunday. "We're not finishing quarters."

Said Lamar Odom, ""That’s the story of our last 10 or 15 games – having leads and losing it, not playing up to our potential . . . We can play a lot better than what we did today. We got to get through this lackadaisical spell that we’re in right now."

He'll find trouble finding anyone who disagrees. Here's how the next seven days shake out:

GAME OF THE WEEK

Whatever Game In Which Andrew Bynum Finally Makes His Season Debut

In theory, it's supposed to be Tuesday in Washington. Unfortunately, Bynum, who last week expressed a desire to get a few more practices under his belt before engaging in the real thing, made the projection based on schedule including a full court run Saturday afternoon, one the Lakers canceled thanks to bad New York City traffic. A pain-and-complication free workout with his teammates would have removed much of the lingering doubt about the safety of his return. Now, his participation in Tuesday's game seems contingent on how he comes through Monday's practice. Hopefully, the scheduling snafu won't change the timetable, but it wont be totally clear until he's put on the active roster Tuesday night.

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The middle leg of the Threepeat era saw the Lakers rip through the postseason at a historic 15-1 clip. Their only loss came during Game 1 of the Finals, an overtime battle at Staples Center taken over by Allen Iverson's iconic 48-point performance.

Obviously, the first defeat in 12 postseason tries is nothing to panic over, but the prospect of falling 0-2 to the 76ers might have prompted some panic-button hovering. But any hint of Philly momentum was squashed by Shaquille O'Neal.

The eventual Finals MVP did more than just put his stamp on series-tying contest. He turned in a stat line of gargantuan proportions: 28 points on 12-for-19 shooting, 20 rebounds, nine assists, eight blocks. Even more impressive was the timeliness displayed as he accumulated numbers.

Shaq may have spent a career rationalizing an "I make them when they count" attitude on free throws, but during a 16-6 third-quarter run, he sank three free of four attempts. (He made just four of 10 in all.) Shaq's final assist was converted from downtown by Derek Fisher to create some breathing room after the Sixers cut the Lakers' lead to three with 2:08 remaining. And with Kobe Bryant the only other Laker scoring above 15, Shaq's dominance on both sides of the ball came at precisely the right time.

More on the "lack of urgency" theme below the jump.

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That would be the number of technical fouls "earned" by the Philadelphia 76ers, the NBA's 10th lowest total. (The Lakers, by comparison, have 61, third highest in the league.)

Yes, the Sixers, who visit Staples Center tonight (7:30 pm PT, FSN) may be suffering through a brutal 22-win season, but they're doing it with clear, cool heads and a keel so even it makes two, four, six, and eight look like odd numbers. So if the Lakers think they can capitalize on pent up frustration and goad Philly into silly T's as a strategy for victory, think again.

Fortunately, hope isn't lost. There are a few more numbers the Sixers bring to Friday night's proceedings that are a little more relevant:

• 97.7: Points per game (22nd in the NBA)
• 45.3: Field goal percentage (20)
• 30.25: Defensive rebounding average (22)
• 46.6: Opponents FG% (21)
• 39.7: Opponents 3-point FG (30)
• -150: Season point differential (21)

There are others, and they all point to one thing: Philadelphia isn't a good team. This you knew already. As it is on most nights when the Lakers play an inferior opponent, tonight's game will be more about how the Lakers operate. Will they clean up the turnover issues plaguing them over the last two games? Will they find some rhythm offensively?

I don't worry about them dropping a potential "trap" game ahead of Sunday's critical matchup with the Nuggets, but it wouldn't hurt the Lakers to use the opportunity to get sharp, like a BCS team does against some cream puff in late September.

More odds and ends of interest and import:

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The Lakers' long and winding road featured a stop Friday night in Philadelphia, former stomping ground of none other than Kobe Bean Bryant. Typically he receives no hero's welcome (though the boos weren't as hearty this time around), but give The Mamba credit: He doesn't hold grudges. Rather than react to a career of catcalls by phoning it in, Bryant pulled out some serious stops. Even better, the Lakers' 99-91 win actually allowed Philly and L.A. fans alike a trip down "Better Memory Lane" to a time when the Sixers were among the league's deadliest squads. After a foul-ridden first half and a brief-but-frightening scare, it was not just "The Kobe Show," but the "Remember When Mamba and AI Used to Battle Back in the Day? Power Hour."

You couldn't help but hum a few bars from a certain movie theme, because the brief reenactment of the 2001 Finals from Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson tickled everybody's fancy. For starters, The Press-Enterprise's Jeff Eisenberg:

Anyone who left the arena early missed a surprisingly entertaining second half as Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson waged a duel the caliber of some of the clashes when the 76ers all-star was in his heyday.

The Lakers won 99-91 to build momentum entering Sunday's renewal of the storied rivalry with Boston, Iverson's 21 second-half points upstaged by Bryant's 22 in the final two quarters of his return to his hometown.

"It was like 2001 all over again," Bryant said. "He's a scorer. He and I both. That's what we do. He's been scoring since he was 7 years old ... It's like riding a bike."

What made Bryant's second-half surge more memorable was that it looked as if he were destined to watch the final 20 minutes from the locker room. When Elton Brand dived for a loose ball and landed hard on the outside of Bryant's left ankle early in the third quarter, Kobe immediately grabbed for his ankle and gestured to the bench. But he walked off the injury during a timeout and returned without missing any action.

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You may have felt a strong wind rushing through the Southland earlier this evening. It was actually a collective sigh, an entire city's worth of Lakers fans exhaling in relief after a brief scare.

Why?

Because Kobe Bryant was hobbling around stiff-legged upon getting his foot caught underneath Elton Brand, diving to recover his own turnover.

The sequence itself would have been otherwise cause for smiles. Ron Artest had stripped Brand in space, then missed a point-blank layup all by his lonesome before leisurely putting back the brick. Artest grinned sheepishly afterward, but Kobe, along with the Laker Nation, was grimacing as Gary Vitti approached him.

The team and Bryant have dealt with enough injuries as it is and another would have not only been problematic, but totally ironic, as Bryant recently spoke about the progress his back and fractured index finger have made. The Mamba at square "negative one" represents a true bummer.

Well, worry ye not.

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