Lakers regroup, avoid 0-3 start

LOS ANGELES -- Kobe Bryant scored 26 points, Pau Gasol added 22 points and nine rebounds, and the Los Angeles Lakers avoided the fourth 0-3 start in franchise history with a 96-71 victory over the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night.

Metta World Peace (formerly Ron Artest) scored 14 points for the Lakers, who had much more life than the Jazz despite playing their third game in three nights to open the season.

Los Angeles ran away with a dominant third quarter, making a 27-8 surge out of halftime in the club's first win for new coach Mike Brown.

Paul Millsap had 18 points and 10 rebounds for Utah, the last NBA team to open its regular season. Coach Tyrone Corbin scowled throughout the lowest-scoring performance in an opener in franchise history.

In the Jazz's first season opener without coach Jerry Sloan running their bench since 1988, Utah made just 20 shots in the first three quarters and shot 20 fewer free throws than the Lakers. Al Jefferson went 2-for-16, C.J. Miles was 1-for-8, and rookie Enes Kanter was 1-for-7 in his NBA debut.

At least Utah's 25-point loss was one point better than the biggest blowout loss in Utah opener history.

Utah missed 17 of its first 19 shots in the second quarter while the Lakers made a 13-0 run capped by a one-handed dunk by World Peace, the normally ground-bound leader of Los Angeles' second unit. Los Angeles blew out the Jazz after halftime, jumping to a 68-39 lead with a 12-2 run.

With a Christmas loss to the Chicago Bulls and another defeat in Sacramento a night later, the Lakers got off to their first 0-2 start since the 2002-03 season. But Los Angeles has started 0-3 only three times in franchise history -- just once in the last 50 years (1978-79).

The Lakers got their only back-to-back-to-back series of games out of the way immediately, although they still won't get consecutive days off until mid-January. When the New York Knicks visit on Thursday, Los Angeles still will be without starting center Andrew Bynum, who will finish his four-game suspension for misbehavior in last spring's playoffs.

The Lakers already are hurting this season, with Bryant nursing a torn ligament in his right wrist and Gasol wearing extra support for his sprained right shoulder. Veteran Matt Barnes, who's dealing with bursitis in his left hip, didn't play for the second time in three games despite a loud fan chant for him in the fourth quarter.

Millsap came off the Utah bench, playing through tendinitis in his right quadriceps that nearly kept him out of uniform. Jazz newcomer Josh Howard had 10 points in 24 minutes.