It was three-for-one night as the Lakers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 97-92, improved to an NBA-best 19-2 at home and played their first game with newcomer Ramon Sessions.
Sessions had seven points and five assists Friday, but the story had a more familiar tone to it.
Kobe Bryant had 28 points as the Lakers beat the Timberwolves for a 19th consecutive time.
The other vaguely familiar plot, however, was another lost Lakers lead. They were ahead comfortably in the third quarter, 68-52, until Minnesota moved within six midway through the fourth. The Lakers never really pulled away after that.
"I could have sworn Minnesota shot 55%," Lakers Coach Mike Brown said. It was only 40.2%.
Andrew Bynum had 15 points and 14 rebounds for the Lakers (28-16) but didn't shoot well, making four of 13 attempts.
Matt Barnes hustled his way to 17 points, including one fourth-quarter sequence when he flew off the court to save a ball and hit a three-pointer a few seconds later.
It was the Lakers' first game since they sent Derek Fisher and a first-round pick to Houston for power forward Jordan Hill, who will fight for playing time as a reserve with the Lakers.
Bryant said it was "very difficult" to see Fisher leave. He said he wasn't angry with the trade, but tried not to be sentimental either.
"I've been with him pretty much my entire career," Bryant said. "It's pretty weird. I texted him yesterday and we kind of had a laugh about it. He knows how I am. We just talked about the good times, what a fun time it was to go to battle together. That's about as sentimental as I was going to get."
Most eyes were on Bryant, as usual, but many were also on Sessions, acquired Thursday from Cleveland before the trade deadline.
He sat on the bench next to assistant coach Quin Snyder when he wasn't in the game, going over some of the Lakers' plays.
He wore jersey No. 7, taken most recently by Lamar Odom, and showed some speed at point guard that hadn't been seen here in a while.
He took Wayne Ellington off the dribble and made an easy layup in the first quarter. When he scored a bit later on a fastbreak, Bryant stood and cheered from the Lakers' bench.
"You could see his quickness," Brown said. "He's got a second and third and probably fourth gear."
Bryant also liked what he saw.
"Extremely fast, extremely crafty," he said of Sessions. "Just in the conversations that I had with him out on the floor about execution and things like that, he seems to have a really high basketball IQ."
Before the game, Sessions seemed eager, if not in awe.
"It's the Lakers. There's no secrets about it," he said. "When you come in this arena, you look up at the banners and you know that history has been done in here."
He also predicted he'd be a blur. "These guys might think I'm on something, how fast I'm going to be moving around," he said.
Sessions didn't start at point guard but it might be only a matter of games. Steve Blake got the start Friday and was scoreless with six assists in 28 minutes.
Bryant made an impact with an authoritative dunk in the second quarter over a late-arriving Nikola Pekovic. Pekovic is a burly 6-foot-11 center. Bryant is not. Didn't matter.
Bryant was also sharp from three-point range, making five of eight.
Kevin Love had 27 points and 15 rebounds for the Timberwolves (22-23). Pekovic had 20 and 12.
twitter.com/Mike_Bresnahan
