Lakers pull away in the 4th quarter to knock off Bulls

ESPN: The Lakers may be Kobe Bryant’s team, but once again, they showed they’re not a one-man operation.

Sasha Vujacic scored 19 points, Lamar Odom added 17 points and 16 rebounds, and Los Angeles beat the Chicago Bulls 103-91 Tuesday night.

Slowed by a groin injury, Bryant scored 18 points but was a nonfactor for long stretches against the team he targeted as a possible destination during the offseason.

“Everybody’s contributing and playing well,” Bryant said. “It makes the game fun.”

Odom started an 11-point run with a layup and capped it with a dunk as the Lakers turned an 86-83 lead into a 14-point advantage with 3:24 left in the game. In between, they took advantage of three turnovers, and got an alley-oop dunk by Andrew Bynum and a layup and 3-pointer by Jordan Farmar.

“Balance, that’s been the case the whole season,” Odom said.

Bryant seemed fine when he converted an alley-oop in the game’s opening minute, but he missed his next seven shots and was 7-for-19 overall. His skid ended with a jumper and a layup with just over 2 minutes remaining in the first half.

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