Lakers defeat Bulls, but Brown injured

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kobe Bryant scored 10 of his 18 points in the third quarter, five Los Angeles reserves finished in double figures and the Lakers beat the Chicago Bulls 106-78 on Sunday night for their third straight victory.

Los Angeles blew the game open by scoring 18 straight points to finish the third quarter and start the fourth for an 81-60 lead with 9:45 remaining.

The Bulls weren’t closer than 15 points after that, and wound up losing by their biggest margin ever to the Lakers. The previous record margin was 27 points in 1968.

Andrew Bynum had 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Lakers; Jordan Farmar added 14 points and a career-high eight assists; Chris Mihm and Vladimir Radmanovic scored 11 points each and Luke Walton added 10.

Ben Gordon scored 20 points and Andres Nocioni had 14 points and six rebounds for the Bulls, off to a disappointing 2-7 start after they were picked as one of the Eastern Conference’s best teams during the preseason.

The Los Angeles substitutes outscored their Chicago counterparts 73-31, and the Lakers outrebounded the Bulls 51-38.

Both teams played without a starting forward. Luol Deng, the Bulls’ second-leading scorer, sat out because of lower back pain. Ronny Turiaf missed his second game for the Lakers due to a sprained left ankle.

The Lakers lost starting center Kwame Brown early in the game as well. Brown left in the first quarter with what the team called moderate sprains of the left knee and ankle.

The game was the first between the teams since early-season trade talks involving Bryant, who has asked to be dealt and apparently would welcome a move to Chicago.

“It was talked about incessantly for about two or three weeks,” Bulls coach Scott Skiles said. “We even talked about it as a team. We haven’t talked about it for several days now, but it’s over. It’s just dead. Dead story.”

Brown was injured when Bulls center Ben Wallace fell into him. Bryant charged into Wallace while driving toward the basket and passing underneath to Brown, who went down in a heap clutching his left leg after the contact, which came as he was going up for a shot.

X-rays were negative, and team spokesman John Black said the Lakers would probably have a better idea Monday about the severity of the injuries.

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