Lakers move ahead

Los Angeles outscored Sacramento 24-16 in the third quarter to take a 71-65 lead into the final period of an NBA exhibition game at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Pau Gasol leads all scorers with 12 points for the Lakers, and Lamar Odom has four points and nine rebounds.

For Sacramento, John Salmons has 11 points and Brad Miller 10. Beno Udrih has six points and eight assists.

Kobe playing plenty

Phil Jackson and the Lakers coaching staff must not have been too pleased with the team’s performance in losing its first two preseason games.

Los Angeles has gone with its regulars quite a bit through the first three quarters tonight.

Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom have all played at least 20 minutes already.

Derek Fisher and Andrew Bynum have each gone 18 minutes.

Bryant has seen the most action with 26 minutes played thus far, but he has just nine points on 4-for-12 shooting.

Large Lineup

There is a battle going on between Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza for the Lakers’ starting small forward spot.

Neither of them started tonight.

Instead, Vladimir Radmanovic got the nod to start in the frontcourt, along with 7-footers Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.

Radmanovic stands an imposing 6-10, giving the Lakers the potential to go with quite a tall front line.

The Lakers offered a different look coming out of the locker room in the third quarter.

Gasol was joined up front by Ariza and Odom. The much quicker and athletic lineup allows Los Angeles to offer opponents a completely different look.

Ariza offered a glimpse of just what he’s capable of early in the third quarter with a steal in the backcourt and a thunderous one-handed dunk.