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BOSTON, April 6: The Los Angeles Lakers suffered their worst loss of the season on Friday, a 99-81 setback to the Boston Celtics, who got 33 points from Paul Pierce as Shaquille O’Neal missed another game and Kobe Bryant missed a lot of shots.
O’Neal, bothered all season by an arthritic toe, sat out his second straight game with a sprained right wrist.
The superstar center’s absence clearly was felt as Los Angeles managed just 24 points inside the paint.
Bryant, who nearly picked up the slack for Shaq in Wednesday’s loss at New Jersey, was not up to the task in this one.
He made just 5-of-25 shots as the Lakers were a season-low 34 percent (28-of-82) from the field.
Los Angeles held its only lead at 2-0 and trailed by as many as 23 points.
FRIDAY’S RESULTS:
INDIANA 97 Phoenix 87
Detroit 92 PHILADELPHIA 88
BOSTON 99 LA Lakers 81
CHARLOTTE 97 Washington 91
MIAMI 102 Milwaukee 97
NEW JERSEY 110 Orlando 85
MEMPHIS 99 Houston 81
Toronto 98 CHICAGO 96
Sacramento 117 UTAH 109
New York 86 SEATTLE 83
GOLDEN STATE 108 Denver 104
BUFFALO 3 Florida 1
DALLAS 3 Colorado 1
Ottawa 0 WASHINGTON 0
New Jersey 3 ATLANTA 1
ST LOUIS 5 Chicago 1
VANCOUVER 5 Minnesota 4
ANAHEIM 2 Edmonton 0
NY YANKEES 4 Tampa Bay 0
Cleveland 10 DETROIT 1
Anaheim 3 TEXAS 1
Boston 3 BALTIMORE 0
Minnesota 4 TORONTO 3
KANSAS CITY 5 Chi White Sox 2
SEATTLE 7 Oakland 1
—Reuters
