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Bryant is windshield, Hawks bug

Lakers 90, Hawks 83ATLANTA — When the outcome was decided, eventually, and a curious streak was ended, finally, Kobe Bryant turned in the general direction of the Lakers' bench and wagged a finger back and forth, windshield-wiper style.

Indeed, he had almost single-handedly whisked away the Atlanta Hawks, reeling off 11 points in the final eight minutes to help turn a three-point Lakers lead into a 90-83 victory Monday at Philips Arena.

It pushed the Lakers to 3-2 on their eight-game trip, brushed back their nagging inability to win "trap" games against teams with losing records (temporarily, anyway), and clinched a season sweep of the hapless Hawks for the first time since 1999-2000.

"I felt like it was time for me to get going a little bit," said Bryant, who finished with 27 points.

There were moments of tension, such as Smush Parker's cursing at referee Eric Lewis and drawing a rare technical foul as he was pushed back toward the Lakers' bench by Bryant.

There were moments to behold, such as Bryant's taking the Lakers on his shoulders after he checked back into the game with 8:10 to play.

There were even moments at which to chuckle, such as Andrew Bynum's three-point attempt with 28.8 seconds to play and the Lakers up by eight. After his shot bounced out, predictably, players and assistant coaches laughed on the Lakers' bench. One person sat stiffly, arms crossed.

"That's an automatic $50 fine," Coach Phil Jackson said. "Those are things that I don't want to see."

Said Bynum: "I'm going to pay in pennies. It looked good, it just rimmed out on me."

The Lakers could afford to smile a bit after putting away a struggling franchise that had been anything but easy for them to beat in recent history. They had split the last six season series with the Hawks, who have won exactly three fewer playoff games this decade (zero) than the Lakers have championships over the same span.

Perhaps the Hawks' overall futility explains why a staggering number of fans rooted for the Lakers, Bryant in particular.

One even held up a sign: "Kobe, my parents named me after you."

Bryant saw it, invited 5-year-old Kobe Grandstaff and his parents into the locker room afterward, and talked about how the tide moved quickly in the Lakers' direction.

The Hawks were hanging around, as they usually do against the Lakers, and trailed, 68-65, when Bryant re-entered the game. He made a 19-footer. Then another 19-footer, this time a fade-away. Then a three-pointer, followed by an 18-foot fade-away.

The Hawks tried calling time outs to stop him. On one of them, Bryant pulled out the windshield wiper.

"It's swagger," he said. "That comes from the playground. Playing at the park, having fun. It just makes the game fun.

"When the building kind of starts rooting for us, you feel like it's an opportunity to kind of go for the kill a little bit. It can't help but be a little demoralizing for the home team."

Both teams looked demoralized in the first quarter, the Lakers making six of 21 shots, the Hawks six of 20. The Lakers led, 16-14, when the quarter ended.

Lamar Odom (15 points on four-for-17 shooting) and Smush Parker (three points on one-for-eight shooting) would continue to have a frustrating night, Odom partially atoning with a season-high 18 rebounds.

Smush Parker, on the other hand, glared at Lewis after being called for a charge with a minute left in the second quarter. He almost spiked his headband onto the court, thought better of it, waited for Lewis to turn his back, yelled an expletive at him and was hit with a technical.

Bryant might have saved him from an early exit by cutting off Smush Parker's path to Lewis.

"A normal coach probably would have just sat him after that technical and display of anger," Jackson said. "But I gave him a second chance because I have a kind heart."

Smush Parker more or less converted the opportunity with his only basket, a three-pointer in the corner that put the Lakers up, 80-72, with 4:24 to play.

"I knew one of those was going to go," he said.

See more at www.latimes.com