Los Angeles - Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers received their NBA Championship rings, then opened defence of their title by running circles around their pesky neighbourhood rivals. Bryant scored 33 points, Andrew Bynum had 26 with 13 rebounds as the world champion Lakers beat the Clippers 99-92 on Tuesday night as the NBA tipped off its 53rd season.
"Our rhythm was pretty good," Bryant said. "We had stretches where we locked down defensively,"
Lamar Odom had 16 points, while free agent off-season acquisition Ron Artest added 10 points in his Lakers debut.
Before tipoff, NBA commissioner David Stern kicked off the ring ceremony at midcourt by introducing several Lakers legends from previous championships teams, including Jerry West, Magic Johnson, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
"We want to say congratulations to the 2009 world champion Los Angeles Lakers," Johnson told the crowd at the sold out Staples Centre. "We have the greatest coach in Phil Jackson; we have the greatest player in Kobe Bryant; and we have the greatest owner in all of sports in Dr. Jerry Buss."
Moments later, coaches and players from the 2008-09 champion squad were called up one by one by the commissioner to receive their diamond rings, with the loudest ovation reserved for Bryant, who was introduced last.
Lakers veteran guard Derek Fisher then led the crowd in a "3,2, 1 countdown before the Lakers 15th championship banner was hoisted to the rafters as the crowd roared with approval for the club which beat Orlando in five games for the title last June.
"It's always tough to play games after those kind of ceremonies," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who picked up his record-breaking 10th ring.
"Some of the energy is always difficult to maintain because there is a lot of energy that's kind of dissipated when you go out and have that kind of ceremony. You are not ready to step up and march to the tune of this season right yet," he said.
However, after receiving their bling, the Lakers got back to business against the stubborn Clippers, who put up a good effort despite learning top overall draft pick Blake Griffin would be lost for the next six weeks to a broken left knee cap suffered last weekend.
The Lakers built a 15-point lead that was trimmed to 10 by halftime and to 76-75 after three quarters. However, Odom scored eight points to spark a 16-4 run to start the final frame, and the reigning champions pulled away for a 94-79 cushion en route to the victory.
Eric Gordon led the Clippers with 21 points while Chris Kaman finished with 18 and 16 rebounds.
"We have got a good, deep team and we'll win a bunch of ballgames while Blake is out," guard Baron Davis said. "We really felt we could have won this game."
Elsewhere Boston Celtics 95, Cleveland Cavaliers 89 Paul Pierce scored eight of his 23 points in the final 62 seconds and grabbed 11 rebounds as the Celtics spoiled the regular-season debut of Cavs newcomer Shaquille O'Neal.
Ray Allen added 16 and Kevin Garnett finished with 13 in his first regular-season game since undergoing right knee surgery last March for Boston, which snapped an eight game regular-season slide at Cleveland dating back to December 2004. Free agent pick up Rasheed Wallace contributed 12 points in his Celtics debut.
Reigning league MVP LeBron James had a game-high 38 points and eight assists, while O'Neal finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds for Cleveland, which won its first 23 home games last season before suffering its first loss en route to a league-best 39-2 mark.
Washington Wizards 102, Dallas Mavericks 91 Gilbert Arenas collected 29 points with nine assists, helping new Wizards coach Flip Saunders win his regular season debut.
Andray Blatche scored 20 points and Randy Foye added 19 in his first game for the visiting Wizards, who won without former All-Star forward Antawn Jamison, expected to miss the first dozen games due to a shoulder injury.
German Dirk Nowitzki led all scorers with 34 points on an 10-of-25 field goal shooting, while Shawn Marion added 16 in his regular season Dallas debut.
Portland Trail Blazers 96, Houston Rockets 87 Travis Outlaw scored a game-high 23 points off the bench, Brandon Roy added 20 and the turnover-happy Trail Blazers bounced the visiting Rockets in the opener for both clubs
Martell Webster contributed 14 points while Greg Oden had 12 rebounds and five blocked shots for Portland, which overcame a whopping 26 turnovers, leading to 21 Houston points.
Aaron Brooks had 19 points for Houston, which lost Chinese superstar centre Yao Ming (leg surgery) for the entire season, and won't get former scoring king Tracy McGrady (knee surgery) back until December.
