LA Lakers 100, Dallas 95_奥运英语

　if the los angeles lakers are going to make the playoffs, they're going to have to do it on the road. kobe bryant got them off to a good start thursday night.

　bryant scored 36 points and made two huge plays on each end of the court in the last 1：20, giving the lakers a 100-95 victory over the dallas mavericks in the first game of their travel-filled closing run.

　the lakers, in a tight race with denver and minnesota for the west's eighth and final playoff seed, play 15 of their final 23 away from home, starting with this one. this also was the first of six straight road games —— and they'd lost their last three away from the staples center.

　“ obviously we have a long haul ahead,” bryant said. “ we have to take this and move on. …… this is the way we wanted to start this road trip.”

　while lamar odom nearly had a triple-double （15 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists） and tierre brown revived his game with 10 points, including two big 3-pointers, it was still bryant who made the biggest plays.

　he grabbed one of his nine rebounds after dallas missed two potential go-ahead shots with just over a minute left. he took it all the way for a layup that put the lakers up by three points, then came back and stripped dirk nowitzki from behind on a jump shot.