For a .500 team, the Lakers are looking pretty good lately. Bryant is the biggest reason why.

Bryant scored 11 of his 34 points in the fourth quarter and hit the go-ahead layup with 9 seconds left, leading the Lakers back to .500 for the first time in more than two months with a 99-98 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday night.

Steve Blake stole Smith’s final pass in the waning seconds for the Lakers (30-30), who blew a 16-point lead in the second half before Bryant scored their last six points.

After Bryant scored the Lakers’ final basket while driving directly at Smith, Blake swiped Smith’s desperation pass from underneath Los Angeles’ basket. Bryant threw the ball high in the air to run out the clock on Los Angeles’ seventh straight home victory over the Hawks since 2006.

“I just had to attack,” Bryant said. “I wanted to attack and just go right at them. Take the game to them. Be aggressive. Be physical. And it worked out.”

Steve Nash had 15 points and 10 assists, while Dwight Howard added 11 points and 15 rebounds in the Lakers’ 13th win in 18 games. Los Angeles hung on for a quality win over the Hawks, a near-certain playoff team with ample motivation to knock off the high-profile Lakers.

Kobe wouldn’t allow it, making one big play after another down the stretch. Afterward, he repeatedly compared himself to a fine wine — only getting better with age.

“It was more of a message to my team here, to kind of have that will, that hunger, to push through it by any means necessary,” he said. “It’s just a challenge. I wouldn’t even really categorize it as fun. The fun comes in the challenge, and we’re up for it.”

The Lakers hadn’t been at .500 since Dec. 28, when they followed a win over Portland with six consecutive losses. They’ve spent the past six weeks digging themselves out of the latest hole in their rut-filled season, culminating in a lengthy stretch of recent solid play despite the absence of injured 7-footer Pau Gasol.

If the Lakers manage to upset Oklahoma City on Tuesday night, they would have their first winning record since Nov. 20, when they beat Brooklyn in coach Mike D’Antoni’s debut to go 6-5.

Al Horford scored 24 points and Smith had 19 for the Hawks, who had won four straight before consecutive road losses to the Suns and Lakers. Atlanta hasn’t beaten the Lakers anywhere since March 31, 2010.

Smith relished his matchup with Bryant, even if he got the short end of it.

“He’s been doing it for a long time, so you have to respect what he brings to the table,” Smith said. “He’s an assassin. He wants that moment. But from a defensive standpoint, I love taking a challenge like that and try to step up and try to make it tough for him. It was kind of like a tug-of-war match. We were going back and forth, and they made one more play than we did to win the game. I live for moments like this.”

Bryant put the Lakers up 96-95 with 2:18 to play on that ferocious dunk. After turnovers by both teams, Jeff Teague reclaimed the lead for Atlanta with 45 seconds left on a floating layup in traffic.

After Bryant hit two free throws, Horford put the Hawks back ahead with a dunk on a backdoor pass from Smith with 26.7 seconds left. But Bryant drove around Horford and right into Smith at the rim, willing the ball over his defense.

“There’s a reason why he’s the best player in the game,” Horford said of Bryant. “He did what he usually does, and we didn’t do a good enough job on him. It’s disappointing. We thought we worked hard and put ourselves in a position to win. We just had too many mistakes down the stretch.”

Devin Harris scored 12 of his 16 points in a three-minute spree late in the third quarter while Atlanta erased Los Angeles’ big lead.

Game notes

The Hawks finish their trip Monday night in Denver. … Atlanta coach Larry Drew was able to attend his son’s final UCLA home game on Saturday thanks to the fortunate coincidence in the Hawks’ schedule. Drew considers Los Angeles home after playing for the Clippers and Lakers, followed by a lengthy stint as a Lakers assistant coach in the 1990s prior to Phil Jackson’s arrival. … Novak Djokovic visited the Lakers’ locker room with fellow tennis player Justin Gimelstob before the game. One day after winning the Dubai Championships halfway around the globe, Djokovic spoke at length with Howard, who claims he won a school tennis tournament as a kid.

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The deadline for teams to use the franchise tag is 4 p.m. ET on Monday.

The team’s decision means that left tackle Jake Long and receiver Brian Hartline will become unrestricted free agents on March 12 unless the Dolphins can agree to contracts with both players before then.

The 29-year-old Starks made the Pro Bowl as an alternate and is one of the anchors of Miami’s stout run defense. He was hard to move in the middle and showed enough athleticism to also register 4.5 sacks and an interception. Starks has 32.5 sacks and four interceptions in 140 career games.

Long, the Dolphins’ No. 1 overall pick in 2008, was placed on injured reserve in December because of a left triceps injury. Before that injury, the 27-year-old left tackle had missed only two games in five NFL seasons. He was chosen as a Pro Bowl starter each of the three years before 2012.

Long has become a less dominant blocker as his injuries accumulate. He was slowed by an ankle injury as a rookie and hurt his shoulder in 2010. In 2011 he battled back trouble, then missed the final game with a torn right biceps.

The 26-year-old Hartline posted career highs in receptions (74) and yards (1,083) as he provided a go-to target for first-year quarterback Ryan Tannehill.

He has 183 receptions, 2,753 yards and six touchdown catches in 60 career games.

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“I don’t know what the best way is to make them play together, but I know one thing is that they both got to just play hard and believe and not worry about — ‘Hey, how can we make this work,’ ” Nash said. “We just got to fight and scrap and on defense, use their length and athleticism and on offense, we all got to just be unselfish and sacrifice and make plays for each other regardless of where we are on the floor.”

Gasol has missed the past three games after sustaining a concussion against the Denver Nuggets when JaVale McGee inadvertently elbowed his nose.

Gasol was re-evaluated on Saturday and not cleared to resume basketball activities. He will receive another examination Sunday morning in advance of the game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni said Gasol will be a game-time decision.

Howard also has missed the past three games with a torn labrum in his right shoulder. He participated in on-court conditioning exercises Saturday and will be re-evaluated Sunday. The Lakers are officially listing Howard as out, but D’Antoni said he will be a game-time decision.

While Gasol has been out, the Lakers (15-21) have floundered, losing three straight games to extend their losing streak to six — the worst skid for the franchise since it lost seven in a row in March 2007.

Nash also said it will be part of his responsibility as a point guard to get Gasol going when the big men do get back in the lineup. Gasol is averaging career lows in both points per game (12.1) and shooting percentage (41.6 percent) this season.

“I’m going to try to get Pau involved,” Nash said. “Obviously, I think he’s a terrific player. I think when we played together recently, there was a lot of opportunities where (the defense) would jump out on my pick-and-rolls, I’d get it back to him quickly. He can be the playmaker in 4-on-3, 3-on-2 situations where he really thrives. The fact of the matter, it’s tough to get inside to him when Dwight and him are on the floor together. To Pau’s credit, he can stretch the floor more than Dwight and he’s more of a playmaker, so sometimes he’s going to find himself on the perimeter.”

In Nash’s opinion, it’s Gasol’s mental game, not his positioning on the court, that matters most.

“I think Pau is a tremendous basketball player,” Nash said. “I need to see him get his health and his confidence back. Even when he has been inside this year he hasn’t looked very confident. For me, I really want to see him really feel better physically, mentally, confident and enjoy the game because I don’t know if he’s been himself this year. If we can get him back to himself, it doesn’t matter where he plays. He’ll be great.”

Lakers executive vice president of player personnel Jim Buss told ESPNLA 710 radio in Los Angeles on Thursday that when Gasol returns, he wants the former four-time All-Star to receive more touches on the block.

“I love Pau Gasol,” Buss said. “The thing is, if you shoot the basketball from six feet, your percentages are going to be in the high 50s. If you shoot from 18 feet, you’re lucky to get 40 percent. To base his year off of his shooting percentages is just not the right way to analyze how he’s playing.

“I believe if we can get him down low, he can coexist with Dwight Howard if they play enough games to where they can play off each other. I believe eventually he will move down there and D’Antoni will move him down there and his percentage will go back right to where it was.”

D’Antoni said he has spoken to Buss and general manager Mitch Kupchak about fixing things for Gasol before the Lakers lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-101 on Friday.

“We talked about it and I think it’s pretty evident we’d like to get him more touches down there,” D’Antoni said. “… There are going to be a lot of changes (when Gasol and Howard return). We have to try to do everything and if that works, yeah, we’ll do it in a heartbeat.”

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