AFP/Los Angeles

It didn’t take long for the Los Angeles Lakers to come down from their high of watching Kobe Bryant pass Michael Jordan for third place on the all-time NBA scoring list.
Just 24 hours after Bryant hit a pair of free throws against Minnesota to pass Jordan, the Indiana Pacers compiled a 33 point halftime lead en route to a 110-91 thrashing of Los Angeles on Monday night.
“We were just embarrassed with the way we played in the first half,” said Lakers coach Byron Scott. “We can’t afford to do that. We have got to come out and be desperate as well.”
The Lakers trailed 60-27 at the half as Bryant shot three-for-13 and the bench was two-for-19. The Lakers stumbled to a 16.3 percent shooting in the first 24 minutes. The halftime score would have been much worse if the Lakers hadn’t scored the final six points of the half.
Rodney Stuckey posted his second straight double-double for the Pacers, who snapped the Lakers’ modest three-game win streak. C J Miles’ layup at 2:22 of the first quarter gave the Pacers a 26-4 lead. Los Angeles scored 11 points in the final two minutes of the period but still trailed 34-15. The second quarter was a repeat of the first as the Pacers went on a 14-2 run to push their lead to 48-17 five minutes before halftime.
The Pacers led by almost 40 points before Bryant and Wesley Johnson hit back-to-back shots from beyond the arc to send the two teams into halftime.
Stuckey tallied 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists and Miles came off the bench to score 20 for Indiana, who hadn’t won a game since November 28.
Bryant finished with 21 points on eight-for-26 shooting. Nick Young finished with 18 points on 12 shots and Carlos Boozer had 13 and 10 rebounds.
After having their season-high nine-game winning streak clipped, the soaring Atlanta Hawks were back in flight.
Al Horford scored 21 points, including a key jumper with 58 seconds remaining Monday, and the Hawks held off the visiting Chicago Bulls 93-86 for their 10th win in the last 11 games.
“It’s exciting to see our team coming together,” said Horford, who added 10 rebounds and six assists.
“We just have to keep building on this and keep it going.” Paul Millshap netted 17 points for Atlanta (17-7), which rebounded from Saturday’s 100-99 buzzer-beating loss to Orlando, with its seventh straight home win and first in seven meetings against Chicago since Dec 22, 2012.
Jimmy Butler scored 22 points, Taj Gibson added 15 with 17 rebounds while Spaniard Pau Gasol contributed 12 points and 13 boards for the Bulls (15-9), whose three-game winning streak ended. “I thought our guys played hard,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said.
“You have to give the Hawks credit. They made the big plays.”
Atlanta stayed in front for most of the contest but couldn’t shake the Bulls, as the lead was trimmed to 87-84 on Gibson’s dunk with 1:13 remaining. But Horford dropped in 19-foot jumper from the left wing.
The Bulls again drew to three, 89-86 on Gasol’s put-back layup off his own miss with 23.7 seconds left. They had a chance to get closer after Butler deflected a Kyle Korver pass resulting in a jump ball.
The Hawks, however, controlled the tip and Jeff Teague sank the game-sealing free throws with 10.8 ticks remaining.
“Contributions from up and down the roster on both ends of the court really allowed us to beat a very good team,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “That kind of activity, that kind of effort from the group is what’s going to give us a chance.”