Lakers almost blow their cover

The Kings were missing starters Kevin Martin (sprained left ankle) and Mikki Moore (sprained right ankle) and sixth man Francisco Garcia (strained right calf).

That made it all the more maddening for the Lakers.

"Well, defensively, we weren't happy with our game," Coach Phil Jackson said. ". . . Offensively, we were effective, although we turned the ball over an inordinate amount of times (17). But defensively, I thought we were poor."

The Lakers improved to 11-1, so they can take some solace in that.

"It's a mentality. We want to get better each game," Bryant said. "We don't want to give up 100 points. We want to hold [teams] under 100. So when you don't reach that goal, obviously it's disappointing."

The victory began a stretch in which eight of nine games will be against teams currently without winning records.

Next up for the Lakers are the New Jersey Nets (6-6) Tuesday night at Staples Center.

Then it will be Dallas (6-7) and Toronto (6-7) at home, Indiana (5-7), Philadelphia (7-6) and Washington (1-10) on the road, Milwaukee (7-8) at home and, finally, a game at Sacramento (5-10).

"It's one of those nights where you don't want to play a subpar game and end up losing and regret it because you didn't give the best effort," Jackson said. "But I thought our guys' effort was OK."

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broderick.turner@latimes.com