The Los Angeles Lakers finally beat their Staples Center co-tenants the Clippers for the first time this season, 96-91 with an edgy, angry performance.
In a continuation of chippy behavior that has marked the contests between the two teams, Pau Gasol and Chris Paul found a way to annoy each other.
Metta World Peace realized he is better off not emulating his name and turned in his best overall performance of the young season.
The struggling World Peace only put up one basket, a key three-pointer with 3:30 left in the fourth quarter, but he turned back the clock to play 38 minutes of grinding defense that disrupted Blake Griffin's game.
In a classic move worthy of the former Ron Artest, Metta ended up in a floor-scrambling tangled mess while tying up Griffin with his legs and his arms. He contributed seven rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots.
Pau Gasol mixed it up with Chris Paul leading to the two doing a bit of shoving at the end of the fourth quarter, when the Lakers had finally pulled ahead for good.
The Clippers had owned the Lake Show from the start of the pre-season, taking both of those contests as well as the regular season game between the two.
The Lakers ended their three-game losing streak that saw carping in media by Pau Gasol about his lack of offensive role in the paint and his critique of Coach Mike Brown's offense.
Brown defended his offensive sets that he says feature one player inside and four outside, explaining that it was up to Gasol to be the first big guy down the floor and take that spot from center Andrew Bynum.
The Spaniard came out on fire and seemed to take Brown's advice as he racked up 23 points. Kobe Bryant had no reason to shoot a lot because when he passed to a teammate, more often than not, the shot was made.
Kobe ended up with six assists and a game high 24 points and Bynum contributed 19 with four big blocks.
Technicals were assessed early by the refs who decided two things: they were going to be strict on defensive three-seconds calls for both teams and wouldn't tolerate whining and complaining about foul calls.
Then the technicals got handed out for hard fouls, leading to the Lakers Josh McRoberts getting tossed after some pushing and shoving, followed by too much back talk to the official.
The Clippers Mo Williams was called for a flagrant 1, after grabbing the neck of back up guard Andrew Goudelock when he went in for what looked like an uncontested layup.
The rookie Goudelock was a pleasant surprise, scoring 14 in 20 minutes after getting his chance with fellow rookie Darius Morris disappointing in the previous few games.
The Lakers, who have played four more games in the young season than the Clippers have enjoyed a ton of home games in the first four weeks of the season.
They now go on the road for nine out of the next 10. The Clippers begin the grinding part of their schedule next week and find that they don't have two days off in a row from then until the season's end.
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