NEW ORLEANS -- Anthony Davis swatted away Pau Gasols shot, quickly sprinted toward the other end of the court, took a pass from Eric Gordon and rolled in a driving layup as Jodie Meeks fouled him. Davis smiled widely and allowed himself a slight fist-pump as his momentum carried him over the baseline. He then sauntered back to free throw line and finished his game-sealing three-point play while a jubilant New Orleans Arena crowd chanted "M-V-P!" Davis finished with a career-high 32 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and tied a career best with six blocks, leading the New Orleans Pelicans over the Los Angeles Lakers 96-85 on Friday night. "I mean, hes the franchise. Hes that guy. Hes the go-to guy and everybody here knows it," said guard Jrue Holiday, whose 13 points and 13 assists gave him his first double-double with New Orleans. "We want him to be that guy. Its awesome to see." Gordon scored 16 for the Pelicans, who led most of the way in their second straight win. New Orleans had lost 11 regular-season games in a row to the Lakers. New Orleans broke open a tight contest with a 12-0 run in the final 3:16 that started with Davis 16-foot jumper and included his fast-break two-handed jam, his block of Gasol and his fast-break layup. "Hes a special player because hes athletic," Gasol said. "Hes able to block a shot on one end and sprint to the other end and get a layup ... so you really have to keep up with him because he creates a threat to you thats a little different than other players. "Hes got a good shooting touch. Hes got a complete package for his second year in the league," Gasol added. "Its pretty impressive." The performance forced Pelicans coach Monty Williams to abandon his usual refrain that Davis, the 2012 top overall draft choice, is only "scratching the surface" of his capabilities. "I dont know what hes scratching, but I know he works his tail off," Williams said. "Were going to enjoy seeing nights like this from him." Davis matter-of-factly said he was pleased to see results from the work he put into his game since last season ended. "I work on certain things and try to apply it during the game. Thats why you work out. Thats why you have summer sessions and work with the coaches, work with the team, trainers, whoever, to get better," Davis said. "Id be disappointed in myself if I hadnt gotten better." Chris Kaman led Los Angeles with 16 points, while Nick Young and Steve Blake each scored 13. Steve Nash was in uniform but did not play, part of what coach Mike DAntoni described as a plan to rest the 39-year-old point guard in the second of games played on back-to-back nights. The Lakers had won in Houston a night earlier and did not arrive in New Orleans until 3 a.m. Gasol had nine points and 11 rebounds, but said his team needs him to perform better than that when stars like Nash and Kobe Bryant are out. "Ive got to be sharper. Ive just got to play a little smarter," Gasol said. "I might not have all the speed and explosiveness that I used to have years ago, but I still have to use my experience and my fundamentals to be able to be effective every single night regardless of who were playing." Jordan Hill pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds for the Lakers. Jason Smith scored 14 points for New Orleans. Davis asserted himself in the opening minutes by rising to tip a missed shot three times before it finally dropped in for his first points. He scored soon after by slamming home another missed shot and hitting an 18-footer. By the time the first half was over, had 15 points and 10 rebounds, helping New Orleans to a 55-48 lead. "Guys are looking for him now a consistent basis," Williams said. "When you get out and beat everybody down the floor and you get layup and dunk after dunk, he makes it easy on everybody else." NOTES: Outgoing NBA commissioner David Stern, wholl step down at the All-Star break in New Orleans in February, attended the game in what is his last planned official visit to the Big Easy in his current post. Those honouring Stern included Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu. After the first quarter, Stern was presented with a framed Pelicans jersey bearing his last name and the No. 30, a nod to his three decades as commissioner. Stern was influential in securing New Orleans future as an NBA city both after Hurricane Katrina and in 2010, when the NBA made the unprecedented move of purchasing the team from then-owner George Shinn and finding a buyer committed to keeping the club in Louisiana long-term. That buyer was Tom Benson, who also owns of the NFLs Saints. After Katrina, Stern said, "We were determined to do our best to do everything possible to make sure that we would be a part of what we knew would be the growth and redemption of New Orleans. 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It was a far cry from Saturday, when Syracuse trailed then-No. 8 Villanova 25-7 before rallying for a 78-62 victory. "We just wanted to come out and be aggressive," said Grant, who started in place of injured Dajuan Coleman and finished with 15 points. "We didnt want to let them get to a big lead like we did against Villanova. We just came out aggressive, but we kind of let up after that." Syracuse (13-0), one of seven unbeaten teams in Division I, has won 51 straight nonconference games in the Carrier Dome and begins its first season of play in the Atlantic Coast Conference at home against Miami on Saturday. "We really have come through this first 13 games as well as you could ever hope for," Boeheim said. "We played some really good teams. Its ironic the one game we could have lost was St. Francis. Weve put ourselves in the best position we could possibly put ourselves in." Rakeem Christmas matched his career high with 15 points, C.J. Fair finished with 13 points and eight rebounds, and Trevor Cooney had 10 points for the Orange. Freshman point guard Tyler Ennis, second nationally in assist to turnover ratio (4.69), matched his season high with nine assists to go with two turnovers and pulled down five rebounds but did not score. Glenn Bryant led Eastern Michigan (7-5) with 19 points and eight rebounds and Raven Lee had 12 points. Leading scorer Karrington Ward had five points, 10 below his average, on 2-of-10 shooting. Former Syracuse centre DaShonte Riley, a 7-footer, was a nonfactor, failing to score or snare a rebound in 15 minutes of play. The Orange put together a 19-4 spurt as the Eagles sputtered mightily, making just 3 of their first 16 shots and committing eight turnovers in the opening 12 minutes. After Darell Combs hit a 3 to pull Eastern Michigan to 11-6, Cooney started the Syracuse run with a 3 from the left wing and Fair and Grant followed with dunks to give Syracuse an 18-6 lead at 13:28.dddddddddddd Christmas converted a lay-in to complete a pretty passing play under the basket with Ennis and Tyler Roberson and boost the Orange lead to 30-10 at 7:33. "I knew with Jerami starting it makes them better offensively," Eastern Michigan coach Rob Murphy said. "He was able to get into the high post and create some havoc. When we figured that out, it was a game." The Orange got sloppy after their spurt, committing five turnovers, Christmas was called for two fouls, and Ennis missed the front end of a 1-and-1 as the Eagles clawed back with a 15-6 surge keyed by two three-point plays from Bryant. "The first four minutes determined a lot," Bryant said. "We came out kind of sluggish and were down so much. We just talked to each other, said we had to bring more energy, consistency, and we were able to fight and get back into the game." In the final 80 seconds of the period, Fair and Christmas missed dunks and Grant was called for goaltending. A pair of free throws by Mike Talley with 1.7 seconds left narrowed the Oranges lead to 36-27 at the break. EMU moved within 36-30 in the first minute of the second half when Talley drained a 3-pointer from the wing, but Christmas responded with a putback, Fair sank two free throws, and Cooney hit his second 3 of the game to give the Orange a 12-point lead less than 4 minutes in. After Lees 3-pointer closed the gap to 44-37 at 15:53, Syracuse responded with a 14-2 run to clinch it. Christmass putback capped it at 7:46 and gave the Orange a 58-39 edge. Syracuse committed 13 turnovers, finished 3 of 14 from long range, Fair missing all five he attempted, and misfired on 10 of 25 free throws. "We started to play at a very high level," Boeheim said. "We played at a very low level the rest of the game. Its something to think about. I think we felt we had the game under control and offensively settled a little bit. They made a couple of good offensive plays. We had a really bad stretch at the end of the first half, made some turnovers we dont usually make." Coleman, who has a contusion in his left leg, watched the game dressed in sweats on the Syracuse bench. Hes been receiving treatment for the injury and Boeheim called the injury day-to-day. wholesale stitched jerseys wholesale jerseys wholesale nfl jerseys cheap nfl jerseys cheap nfl jerseys china ' ' '