Bodog Beat

A season-high 48 points by Kobe Bryant lifted the Lakers. (AI Wire photo)

Life for the Lakers without a force underneath looked the way Kobe Bryant feared months ago. Andrew Bynum missed his first of what's expected to be many games with a left knee injury and Los Angeles looked like a one-dimensional team. When that dimension is Kobe, though, you can still win.

Bryant scored 48 points, a season-high, and the Lakers prevailed over the Seattle SuperSonics in overtime. The 44th shot (!) Bryant took was the winner as he scored on a jumper with 4.3 seconds to go in OT and the Lakers pulled out the 123-121 victory at Seattle's KeyArena.

No other Laker scored more than 14 points, which may be more incredible considering the game took 53 minutes to play.

The Sonics did manage to beat the point spread, which favored L.A. by six. The betting total was over 208 points.

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