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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Palmieri ended a 10-game goal drought with his first NHL hat trick, Viktor Fasth made 20 saves, and the Pacific Division leaders beat the Nashville Predators 5-1 Wednesday night for their seventh straight home victory.

“It’s been an up-and-down season for me, but I hope that this gives me the confidence to put together a nice little hot streak,” Palmieri said.

Nick Bonino and Saku Koivu also scored for Anaheim. Perry and Getzlaf assisted on all three goals by Palmieri, who hadn’t scored since netting back-to-back game winners on Feb. 1-2.

“They’re two phenomenal players and definitely two of the best in the world, so it’s an honor to be on their line and be on ice with them,” Palmieri said. “Those guys are also phenomenal playmakers as well as goal scorers.

“I just knew I had to get out there and work hard and find those areas. I knew that if I was open, they’d give me the puck.”

Palmieri completed his outburst against Pekka Rinne 1:07 into the second period, during a power play after Nashville had too many men on the ice.

“I couldn’t believe it at first,” Palmieri said. “It was kind of a quick play there, and I wasn’t actually sure if it went in. But when the ref game the signal, it was a pretty awesome feeling.”

It was the sixth natural hat trick in club history and marked the third career multigoal game for the 22-year-old forward, selected by the Ducks in the first round of the 2009 draft.

“Last year, I was up and down from the minors quite a few times and couldn’t quite find my home in the lineup,” Palmieri said. “But this year I came in knowing I wanted to be here and I was going to work and do whatever it took to stay here.”

Anaheim (14-3-1) tied Montreal for the second-most points in the NHL behind Chicago’s 35. The Ducks have won seven of eight, losing to only Los Angeles on Monday.

“We just turned the page,” Getzlaf said. “In this short season, if you can resist losing two in a row, it changes a lot of things.”

Rinne gave up five goals on 21 shots before he was replaced at the start of the third period.

Craig Smith scored Nashville’s goal.

Rinne allowed at least four goals for the third game in a row after coming in with a 1.90 goals-against average and a league-best three shutouts.

Rinne was 7-0-2 with a 1.58 GAA in his previous nine starts against Anaheim — both losses coming this season in shootouts.

“We didn’t put pressure in the other team at all. We made it easy for them,” Smith said after the opener of a three-game California trip. “We have to get back to work and try to sort this thing out.”

The Predators fell behind 2-0 before getting their first shot at 6:11 of the first period.

“We were able to catch them on a very tired night,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “It was their fourth game in six nights and they were flying cross-country, so they didn’t look like they had the normal energy that a Nashville team does.”

Anaheim’s first goal came on a dump-in play, as Rinne mishandled the puck behind the net. Rookie Emerson Etem, recalled from the minors on Tuesday, came in hard and fed a pass in front to Bonino, who scored his fifth goal of the season at 2:48.

“We’ve had pretty bad starts lately, so it’s nice when one pops to you between the hash marks in front of an open net to get it going,” Bonino said. “It was huge.

“We have a good team here and everyone knows it.”

The assist was Etem’s third in nine NHL games. He started the season in the minors, then returned there for five games before he and center Peter Holland switched places.

“He brought a lot of energy to the game. There’s no doubt,” Boudreau said of Etem. “He did it the first time he was here and he got two assists in his third game. I think he feels more comfortable coming back for the second time.”

Palmieri finished off a 2-on-2 rush with Perry 61 seconds later, getting a pass in the left circle and swerving around Predators captain Shea Weber before cutting in front of the crease and jamming the puck past Rinne’s outstretched left leg at 3:49.

“That was our worst performance of the year,” Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. “We were down 2-0 right off the bat, and after that we had no bite and no fight. That’s not like us. I thought we might pull it together in the second period, but we didn’t. I was a little surprised at that. This is an important trip.”

Palmieri connected again at 16:57 of the first, converting Perry’s pass from behind the net after Getzlaf won a faceoff in the Nashville zone.

“Kyle’s had a couple of chances in the last few games wasn’t able to score, so it was great that he was able to,” Boudreau said. “When he’s scoring goals, and Bones is scoring goals, and you’re getting them from guys that aren’t normally your leading scorers, it’s good for us.”

Game notes

The first-period goals by Bonino and Palmieri gave Anaheim nine players with five or more, the most of any team. … Palmieri is the second-youngest player to get a hat trick for the Ducks. The youngest was Bobby Ryan, who did it at age 21 on Jan. 8, 2009, in Los Angeles. … The Ducks’ home winning streak is their longest since a club-record 11-game stretch in the 2009-10 season. … The Ducks were 11-2 in February, tying the franchise record for wins in a month. … The Predators were 0-for-10 on the power play during the Ducks’ three-game, season-series sweep. … Palmieri’s final goal ended a run of 15 unsuccessful power plays by the Ducks against Nashville in the regular season. … Anaheim C Daniel Winnik, the first player in franchise history with five goals in the first four games, hasn’t scored in 14 games since. … The Ducks are 8-for-14 on the power play in their past four games.

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