Washington Wizards head coach Randy Wittman was tired of watching Kobe Bryant torch his team. The Black Mamba was 8-of-14 from the field, had 20 points, was single-handedly keeping the Los Angeles Lakers in the game, and it wasn’t even halftime.

So Wittman turned to Paul Pierce, one of the league’s most notorious disturbing defenders—and The Truth changed the game. Bryant didn’t hit another field goal from that point on, and the Wizards pulled away in the second half with a 111-95 victory in the nation’s capital.

“Coach wanted to put a bigger body on him because he was doing a lot of post-ups, going over the top and I could kind of bump him a little more, bother his shot a little more,” Paul said about guarding Bryant. “That was the one adjustment. He’s a great player and you’re not ever going to stop him from scoring the ball, and I fouled him a lot. I just didn’t want to give him any easy opportunities.”

Los Angeles Lakers v Washington Wizards

Paul finished with 14 points, five rebounds, two assists and a block, though an injured toe kept him out of action through the entire fourth quarter. Pierce remains day-to-day with the jammed left big toe.

“It was tough to for me to come back and put pressure on it. It was very inflamed. It’s doing a little better right now,” Paul said of his toe after the game. “So we’ll see how it feels in the next couple days.”

Los Angeles Lakers v Washington Wizards

While The Truth wasn’t able to finish the contest, his defense ultimately swung the game in Washington’s favor. The Wiz kept up their defensive pressure on Bryant and held him to nine points in the second half, all from the free-throw line.

“We fouled him a lot, but we did a better job of forcing him to the help also,” The Truth explained. “We funneled him to where our big guys were able to step up and bother his shot a little bit. I thought first half, we left Bradley (Beal) out on an island, where Kobe could use his great footwork, but in the second half we did a better job at getting help.”

Bryant ripped the Wizards for 15 points in the first quarter, and the Lakers were out to a surprising 33-27 lead at Washington’s Verizon Center. He continued his strong play in the second, adding five points to his total before he faced The Truth.

On the Lakers’ first possession with Pierce on Bryant, the Lakers star put up a jumper that Paul got his hand on. Wizards center Marcin Gortat scooped up the loose ball and fired it ahead to John Wall, who found Beal for a three-pointer to tie the game at 52.

Beal added another deuce to close the half and give Washington a 54-52 lead at the break—an advantage D.C. never relinquished. Beal finished with a season-high 27 points to go with seven assists, and has begun to hit his stride after missing most of the first month of the season.

In addition to his momentum-changing block, Paul also had a strong second quarter offensively, tallying seven points in a span of 2:23.

He came into the game with six minutes left in the first half and the Wizards down by eight, but The Truth immediately hit three straight layups — the third while being fouled — to help jumpstart his team. Washington went on a 9-0 run before Bryant knocked down back-to-back jumpers, prompting Wittman to put the seasoned vet on Bryant instead of Beal.

After the game, the Lakers legend had complimentary words for the Wizards’ top offseason acquisition, and it was clear both during and after the game the level of respect the two future Hall of Famers have for each other.

“Man, we’ve known each other so long,” Bryant said with a laugh. “It was refreshing to see somebody that came up during my era still playing. There’s not too many of us left. Being that we come from the same generation, we’re probably the only ones in the league that can still trash talk and find the heart in that. Nowadays, players don’t do that anymore.”

Paul added to that with a smile, “Just two old veterans talking, talking about the good old days.”

The Truth added five more points in the third quarter before checking out with the toe issue at the 1:42 mark. Rasual Butler took his place and finished with 14 points, including six in the fourth quarter.

“It’s day to day right now. We’ll see how it feels how it reacts. Get some anti-inflammatories—maybe take the rest of the year off from practice. You hear that coach?” Paul joked.

Los Angeles Lakers v Washington Wizards

Gortat complemented Beal’s team-high 27 with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Wall also had a double-double of 17 points and a season-high 15 assists. Meanwhile, Kris Humphries, who has been filling in for the injured Nene Hilario in the starting lineup, tallied six points and a season-high 20 rebounds.

Even with an injured toe, Paul was all smiles in the locker room. In addition to joking about Bryant and his injury, he made a quip about Humphries’ imperfect jump shot. However, he was also quick to praise the contributions made by the forward in the starting lineup.

“I told Humphries, that’s the reason he got paid. It wasn’t that jump shot,” Pierce said with a laugh. “We value him. He’s coming in, filling in starter minutes greatly for us. That’s the key to our ball club: We have great depth. That’s the strength of our team right there.”

NEXT UP

Paul and the Wizards (12-5) finish off their four-game homestand with a showdown against the Denver Nuggets (9-9) on Friday.

It will be just Washington’s fourth game against a Western Conference opponent; the Wizards are 2-1 against the opposing conference so far this year, with wins over the New Orleans Pelicans and Lakers, and their only loss coming to the Dallas Mavericks

The Nuggets will be coming off a 105-103 loss Tuesday night to the Portland Trail Blazers, and the game will come at the start of a three-game Eastern Conference road trip for Denver.

In 28 meetings, Paul has averaged 24.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game against Denver for his career.

Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. ET, and it will be broadcast nationally on NBA TV.

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