Merry Christmas

Bryant had 27 points on 13-23 shooting and grabbed 9 rebounds in the Lakers' win over the Celtics. He also had 9 rebounds and five assists. Gasol added 20 points but was limited on the boards, grabbing only three, but was one of three Lakers with 5 assists behind Fisher's team leading 7 assists. Boston's big three failed to get rolling until the fourth quarter and bench production was nonexistent.


Box Score

A mild surprise was the more (but always)entertaining Suns-Spurs matchup:

PHOENIX -- Roger Mason didn't play at all in the fourth quarter until there were 4.3 seconds left. Then he came in and made the biggest shot of the game.

Mason's 3-pointer from the corner at the buzzer Thursday gave the San Antonio Spurs a 91-90 victory over the Phoenix Suns.

"As a shooter, you're always prepared," Mason said. "Coach put me in in that situation, and I knew if I had it, I was going to shoot it."

The Suns had taken the lead on Grant Hill's layup on an out-of-bounds play with 4.3 seconds to go

Box Score