Starters
Lakers: Fisher, Bryant, Artest, Odom and Gasol
Bucks: Brandon Jennings, John Salmons, Luc Mbah a Moute, Drew Gooden and Andrew Bogut

FIRST QUARTER
5:08 Remember how Phoenix nailed an almost-league-record 22 threes last game? Well, Milwaukee looked intent upon matching that effort, making five of their first six to leave Luke Walton looking up at the scoreboard with a "Really?” expression on his face. Power forward Drew Gooden even got into the act, making two triples to match point guard Jennings.

0:00.1 It was sub Matt Barnes who made a key play to close the first, deftly snatching a late offensive rebound and turning to nail a buzzer-beating three to give the Lakers a 32-29 lead out of the first quarter. We’d expected a defensive game, the Bucks conceding 100 points only once all season and leading the league by allowing only 89 points per game due in part to a deliberate pace, but Milwaukee shot 63.2 percent and L.A. hit 52 percent with four offensive boards to keep the score up.

Bryant and Gasol posted 10 points apiece, while the Spaniard also grabbed four boards and keyed a late run with Bryant on the bench.

SECOND QUARTER
8:09 The Bucks had yet to slow down on offense, converting a silly 72 percent of their shots, yet L.A. still managed to hold a two-point lead after Gasol’s pull-up jumper gave him a game-high 12 points.

4:28 Bryant and Fisher returned at around the six-minute mark, and L.A.’s defense promptly clamped down a bit, allowing a quick 5-0 Fisher run (a three and two free throws) at the other end to put the Lakers up 51-47.

0:04.0 It wasn’t that the Lakers weren’t playing good defense, per say, but Milwaukee was simply making quite a few difficult, long jumpers, including two straight from Gooden (10 points) and Jennings (19), whose layup allowed the Bucks a 59-57 lead. Jennings, for whom the Bucks played 2pac and Dr. Dre’s "California Love” each time he scored (he is an L.A. native, after all), hurt the Lakers throughout the half with his shooting (8-of-13) in particular.

THIRD QUARTER
7:03 Artest, Odom and Bryant scored respective hoops to put L.A. back on top after Jennings had opened a seven-point Deer lead early in the half. Milwaukee’s eighth three-pointer, this time from Salmons, made it 71-70 for the home team, but Odom answered with another jumper to reach 11 points.

3:15 So many times throughout his remarkable scoring career (26,000 and counting) has Bryant gone off on individual runs like the one we saw across a two-minute stretch in which he scored seven points, five coming at the foul line. Add Barnes’s second three, and L.A. had reeled off a 10-0 burst to take an 82-75 lead, its largest of the game.

0:21.9 The quarter ended just as well for L.A., who got Blake’s second three of the game to open a 90-81 lead heading into the final quarter. He, Barnes and Brown had all been effective, allowing Bryant, Fisher and Artest some extra rest. Meanwhile, Bucks mascot Bango, one of the league’s best, attached a bunch of balloons to some Bucks fan instructed to wear a Lakers jersey’s Lakers hat, sending the lid up to the ceiling. Fun stuff.

FOURTH QUARTER
8:39 With Bryant still resting on the bench, Blake and Luke Walton took turns setting up uncontested dunks first for Gasol and then Barnes, followed by a Brown reverse layup that kept the Lakers up somewhat comfortably, 99-88.

5:35 Before the game, Brown told me that he put 12 tickets aside for family members and friends who made the 90-odd mile drive up from Maywood, Illinois, just west of the United Center in Chicago. With a ridiculous fourth quarter stretch in which he nailed three triples for nine of 13 points (18 total), Brown kept the Lakers up 10 despite a four-point possession from Drew Gooden (flagrant 1 foul on Odom plus a tip-in).

0:55 Brown added still another three-pointer to essentially toss the dagger in Milwaukee, before a slick tip pass from Bryant to Gasol and then the second running fadeaway J of the quarter from Kobe made it 118-107 in the final minute. That’s how it would end, with L.A. improving to 9-2 on the season, and 3-1 on the road.