Lakers are pretty gritty

DALLAS — Funny thing, life in the NBA.

Phil Jackson had been preaching the importance of winning a gritty game and declined to compare the toughness of the current Lakers team to those that won three championships earlier this decade.

So the present-day rendition went out and presented a "for your consideration" game.

They collected floor burns, rang up a blocked shot at a critical time and held the Dallas Mavericks to 39 second-half points in a tense 106-99 victory Tuesday at American Airlines Center.

It wasn't poetic, it won't make the year-end highlight video and it started out more Slowtime than Showtime, but it ended with the Lakers' sixth consecutive victory to start the season.

There were sighs and smiles after it ended, the Lakers now 3-0 in road games.

Pau Gasol was again a steadying influence with 22 points and 11 rebounds, and Kobe Bryant had 27 points, but this was one for the reserves.

Trevor Ariza had 13 points, played all 12 minutes of the fourth quarter and had the play of the game, blocking a late three-point attempt by Jerry Stackhouse.

Lamar Odom had 12 points and played almost 10 minutes in the fourth quarter.

Jordan Farmar sparked a late third-quarter rally, lifting his moribund team by passing to Odom for a three-pointer in the corner less than a minute after craftily stealing the ball from Jason Kidd while the Mavericks guard looked back at his coach for a play call near midcourt.

Was that enough grit to satisfy a coach? Bryant thought so.

"It's one of those games where we trailed pretty much the entire game and nobody panicked," he said. "We just kept at it and were able to take advantage of it late in the ball game."

Before the game, Jackson swatted away a question that compared the sturdiness of this team to that of the Bryant-Shaquille O'Neal teams.

"No," Jackson said flatly. "We really haven't had to get into the grit of playing that type of game yet where everything's got to be fighting things out in the paint, control the boards at the end of the game, have to run a tight ship and good execution down the stretch."

The Lakers had plenty of flaws in their game.

The Mavericks had the run of the court in a 60-point first half, and Dallas center Erick Dampier finished with a staggering 12 offensive rebounds.

But the Lakers stuffed Dallas in the second half.