Lakers take down NBA-best Spurs to notch seventh s

SAN ANTONIO -- Kobe Bryant agreed it might have been the Lakers' best game so far.It technically wasn't the worst for the San Antonio Spurs, though it often looked that way. The Lakers may not catch the NBA's winningest team for the No. 1 seed in time for the playoffs, but they handed the Spurs a blunt reminder that the Western Conference is still theirs to surrender, beating San Antonio 99-83 in a blowout Sunday.Bryant, who finished with 26 points, didn't make much of it."I don't think it's that big of a message that we sent today,uggs," he said.It was the seventh straight victory for the Lakers, who are playing as well as any point this season. NBA San Antonio Spurs Jerseys Coach Phil Jackson concedes that San Antonio's 6?-game lead in the West may be too big to overcome with 18 games left. But the Lakers still made a few marks.One is emphatically ending San Antonio's franchise-record home winning streak at 22 games. Another is beating the Spurs for the first time in three tries, including last month's stunning loss in Los Angeles when Antonio McDyess tipped in the game-winner at the buzzer.
Bryant, for his part, didn't show any excitement in winning this round."Why should I be?" he said.Instead, Bryant sought to keep the lopsided win in perspective."We know we're capable of having games like this and San Antonio knows we're capable of having games like this," he said. "It just as easily could go the other way around."Tony Parker led the Spurs with 14 points. He was their only starter in double figures; Cheap NBA Jerseys Tim Duncan scored two points and Manu Ginobili scored six.Two days after San Antonio humiliated LeBron James and Miami in a 30-point blowout, the Spurs took their own lumps. The NBA's sixth-highest scoring team mustered just 37 points in the first half -- matching a season low -- and shot 36 percent from the floor.And it could've been worse. NBA Jerseys The Lakers led by as many as 32 in third quarter before the Spurs threw in the towel and emptied their bench."They hit us in the mouth from the beginning and by the time we realized it, it was the ninth round and we were down on the scorecard," Spurs guard Gary Neal said.The last time the Spurs and Lakers met was in Los Angeles on Feb. 3, when the Spurs won 89-88 on McDyess' tip-in as time expired. Jackson had his video staff pull that clip before this one and remind his team of a game Jackson said they should've won.