All's well at end for Bryant

It looked as if the Lakers had dipped back into last season, a stroll down the type of memory lane they had hoped to forget.

Then the fourth quarter began and the 2007-08 Lakers re-appeared.

It took them a while to react to Friday's game against the Milwaukee Bucks -- more than 36 minutes, to be exact -- but then they picked up where they left off against under-.500 teams, beating the Bucks, 110-105, at Staples Center.

The Lakers' edge after three quarters was a shaky 78-74, an unpredictably small advantage for a team that blasted New Orleans by 29 on the road Wednesday night.

An under-the-weather Kobe Bryant scored 16 points in the fourth quarter and finished with 37 on 12-for-25 shooting. Andrew Bynum had 25 points and took a career-high 17 rebounds as the Lakers won their fifth consecutive game.

It was obvious the Lakers (24-11) weren't feeling too good in the beginning. A few minutes into the first quarter, a brief memo was dropped off to reporters: "Kobe -- viral upper respiratory infection."

Bryant shook off his ailment, the Bucks and a three-quarter slump that had him with 21 points on seven-for-18 shooting.

He began the scoring in the fourth quarter by making three free throws after being fouled on a shot beyond the arc. Then he zipped a no-look pass over his head to Trevor Ariza for a dunk. Then Jordan Farmar made a three-point basket to provide an 86-76 lead with 10:19 to play.

Timeout, Bucks.

Game, Lakers.

"Kobe was Kobe," Bynum said. "Best closer in the game."

The Bucks (15-21) never came closer than 10 after that until making a pair of three-pointers in the last minute, the victory tucked away for the Lakers.

Bryant looked exhausted when it was over, coughing a couple times before a TV interview and then speaking so softly afterward that a ring of reporters kept pressing in toward him.

"I was feeling kind of weak, but I was able to kind of muscle through it a little bit," he said.

If the Lakers' slow arrival Friday seemed surprising, it was because they appeared to be on their way to kicking last season's nasty habit of losing to losing teams.

Coming into Friday, their last three games against such teams had been wipeouts -- 117-101 over Memphis, 112-96 over Indiana and 124-93 over Philadelphia.

Thus, the confusion, if not apprehension, from the crowd as the Lakers slogged their way through three quarters.