For all the attention that Mike D'Antoni's "Seven Seconds or Less" up-tempo offense has gotten in recent years, the Lakers might well be bringing back the idea that big is beautiful.

The Lakers' 60-36 rebounding advantage over D'Antoni's New York Knicks on Tuesday was a stark reflection of how size can matter in basketball. The Lakers did commit 25 turnovers, but they won easily by shooting far more accurately from close range while the Knicks fired away from afar.

"Probably the biggest thing is that they are good," D'Antoni said of the Lakers. "They had a lot of length on us, and the only way we are going to be able to beat them is if we made some jumpshots -- and we just did not make them.

"When you are shooting 38 percent, they are going to get a lot more rebounds. And when you play with three 7-footers (Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol and 6-foot-10 Lamar Odom), you are going to get a lot more rebounds, too."

Bynum had eight rebounds, Gasol 16 and Odom 12 against New York. Ron Artest had seven, too.

The Lakers' size made it nearly impossible for New York to work out any offense near the rim. Said Knicks forward Wilson Chandler: "They pushed our offense back a little farther than we usually do."

LAKERS 100, KNICKS 90: Kobe Bryant was plus-25 -- meaning the Lakers outscored the Knicks by 25 points when he was on the court but got outscored by 15 points when he wasn't. Bryant had 34 points on 14-of-20 shooting.

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