Los Angeles - One game after making history, the Boston Celtics' record-setting run is history.

Kobe Bryant scored 27 points and Spain's Pau Gasol had seven of his 20 in the final three minutes of a game-sealing 13-2 run on Thursday as the Lakers snapped the Celtics' franchise-best 19 game- winning streak, with an inspired 92-83 home-court victory.

The Celtics embarrassed the Lakers 131-92 in elimination game six of the NBA Finals last June to claim their 17th championship banner. Since then, they have shown no letdown, evidenced by their 27-2 mark, establishing a record for the fastest start in league history.

In their first meeting since the ego-deflating blowout six months ago, Kobe and Company intended to use the marquee match-up as a measuring stick to gauge their improvement. On Christmas Day, they earned a measure of revenge by sticking it to their hated rivals.

"It was a good measuring stick for us to show how much we have progressed since the finals," said Bryant after the Lakers improved to 24-5. "It was fun because of the challenge of stopping their streak. They just won 19 straight games, so they were due for one."

The victory enabled Phil Jackson to become the sixth coach to notch his 1,000th career coaching victory (1,000-423). He is the fastest to have reached that milestone in his 17-plus seasons with the Chicago Bulls and Lakers.

"Perfect timing," Jackson said of the achievement. "It's nice to do it on Christmas."

Kevin Garnett scored 22 points, while Paul Pierce finished with 20, but none in the final frame as the Celtics lost for the first time since bowing to Denver on November 14.

"We don't care about the streak, we care about victories," said Celtics centre Kendrick Perkins who finished with eight points and seven rebounds." Tonight they just out hustled us and worked harder.

"Kobe was Kobe tonight he made plays, Gasol made good plays down the stretch and big buckets."

In an intense game filled with playoff atmosphere from start to finish, the two conference leaders were knotted at 81-apiece before Gasol took over.

"You have to be aggressive and turn things around yourself, you can't sit back and wait for it to come to you," Gasol said. "I just had to turn it up during that last stretch of the game. Kobe found me a lot in the fourth quarter, and we executed better."

The gangly seven-foot forward converted passes from Bryant for a wide-open 15-foot jumper, and followed with a seven-foot running hook to put the Lakers ahead, 85-81 at the two-minute mark.

After Garnett's long jumper drew the Celtics within two, Bryant fought out of a double-team in the left corner and found Gasol underneath for a scoop layup, three-point play and an 88-83 advantage with 1:28 remaining.

Gasol came up big on the defensive end as well. After blocking Ray Allen's three-point attempt, leading to Trevor Ariza's breakaway dunk, he rejected Pierce's three-point try. It sent the sellout crowd of 18,997 at Staples Center into a frenzy, before Bryant's layup put the finishing touches on the victory.

"I'm really pleased with Pau's play," Jackson said. "He stepped up in that fourth quarter and we really needed him to step up."

Elsewhere: San Antonio Spurs 91, Phoenix Suns 90 Roger Mason - the league's top three-point shooter at 48 per cent - took a pass from Tony Parker, and nailed a wide-open buzzer-beating triple from the left corner, lifting the Spurs to the dramatic road victory over the Suns.

Parker scored 27 points while Tim Duncan had 25 with 17 rebounds as the Spurs' (19-10) 10th win in the last 12 games moved them into a tie with idle Houston atop the Southwest Division

Amare Stoudemire topped the Suns (16-12) with 25 points and 13 rebounds. Shaquille O'Neal finished with 23 points, 12 boards and became the second player in league history behind the late Wilt Chamberlain to miss 5,000 career free throws.

Orlando Magic 88, New Orleans Hornets 68 Turkey's sharpshooting Hedo Turkoglu scored 20 points, Dwight Howard had 12 with 15 rebounds and the Southeast Division-leading Magic built a 30-point halftime cushion en route to its sixth straight victory.

David West led visiting New Orleans (16-9) with 13 points. Chris Paul added 12, but had his NBA-record of consecutive games with at least one steal stopped at 108.

Cleveland Cavaliers 93, Washington Wizards 89 Mo Williams scored 24 points, and the Cavaliers closed on a decisive 11-0 run in the final 1:33 to keep the league's only home unbeaten streak alive at 15-0.

LeBron James and Delonte West had 18 points apiece in Cleveland's (25-4) fifth straight win. Antawn Jamison scored 28 points, and Mike James had 26 for Eastern Conference-worst Washington (4-23) losers of eight in a row.

Dallas Mavericks 102, Portland Trail Blazers 94 German wunderkind Dirk Nowitzki scored 30, Jason Terry added 19 off the bench and the Mavericks closed on a decisive 13-2 run in the final 4 minutes to trim the host Trail Blazers.

Brandon Roy led Portland (18-12) with 22 points but none in the final frame. Steve Blake scored 14 while Spain's Rudy Fernandez finished with 13 off the bench. (dpa)