Lets start off with the intro tweet from Magic Johnson: for the second consecutive game, the Los Angeles Lakers gave up a ridiculous amount of points in the first half – 67 to be exact – against the lowly New Orleans Hornets after giving up a whopping 71 points against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday.
Down 67-48 to begin the second half and facing a deficit as large as 25 points, the Lakers looked destined to start their all-important road trip 0-2. The poor effort against a sure-fire lottery team was a head-scratcher , given the dog fight they are currently in for a shot to make the playoffs. Just when all seemed lost, though, Kobe Bryant and the team went on a desperate, frantic run.
With a little over six minutes left to go in the fourth quarter, Dwight Howard finally played some exceptional defense and Kobe stepped up his offensive game to help the team go on a staggering 20-0 run. With all momentum lost, the helpless Hornets were stunned 108-102.
Mr. Vino wound up with an impressive 42 points on 14-of-21 shooting, seven rebounds and 12 assists.
Even better for the Lakers, the two teams ahead of them in the standings – Utah Jazz and Houston Rockets – both dropped their games on Wednesday to help Los Angeles inch closer to breaking into the top eight in the Western Conference.
So how did Magic react to what he saw? Not as positive nor as excited as one would think he would be after such an epic comeback:
At this point I’m fairly positive the Lakers will make the playoffs. I didn’t think Utah or Houston could go near perfect for the rest of the season to keep ahead of the Lakers so as long as the Lakers keep winning as many games as possible, they should be good.
The thing that should concern the Lakers is having to win this many games to make the playoffs as that’s going to tax them severely once they get there. But, call me crazy, I think the Lakers will do better in the playoffs. The game will slow down a bit as it always does in the playoffs and then, they’ll be a bit more in their element, not to mention the collection of experience the starting 5 has in the playoffs/finals.