<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The last Laker game at Staples Center in an ever-deteriorating season came and went like many of the rest, with an intriguing moment or two followed by an inexorable slide toward a loss. There were Laker highlights sprinkled here and there ? Kobe Bryant, back after a one-game absence, made a turnaround three-pointer with his left hand and Sasha Vujacic rifled a perfect scoring pass to Luke Walton through the legs of Dallas Maverick guard Devin Harris ? but there were too many turnovers and too few defensive stops for any chance at a Laker victory. The Lakers had not lost their last regular-season home game since 1995, but they fell to the Mavericks, 114-112, in front of 18,237 Sunday. It used to be that regular-season home finales were the first part of a two-month march that took the Lakers through San Antonio or Sacramento or Portland and, finally, whomever came out of the Eastern Conference. But the Lakers won't be playing in May, much less June, undone by the inconsistencies of a spongy defense and oft-unidentifiable offense. "Very strange," Bryant said. "Hopefully this will be the last time it happens." Bryant had 33 points on nine-for-15 shooting, returning from a one-game absence spent with his wife, Vanessa, as she experienced complications related to an ectopic pregnancy.</div> Source
