On Sunday night at Staples Center, the Los Angeles Lakers lost 90-87 in a game that they should never have even had a chance to win. The Lakers only scored 11 points in the first quarter and trailed by 11 points at the halftime intermission. In the third period, the Lakers fell down by 16 points.
However, a replenished Lakers' bench came into the game and flipped the script. Entering the fourth quarter, Lou Williams, Marcelo Huertas, Larry Nance Jr. and Brandon Bass had fueled a Lakers' comeback that had LA only trailing by five points.
In the fourth period, LA tied the game and took a three-point lead before Kobe Bryant came back into the game for his final stretch against the New York Knicks. With director and Knicks super fan Spike Lee sitting courtside, Bryant immediately hit a turnaround jump shot to send the Staples Center crowd in to an explosive frenzy and force the visiting Knicks into a timeout.
At that moment, the hyped duel of Bryant facing Carmelo Anthony finally took center stage. Anthony scored three of the Knicks' next four buckets and assisted on the one basket he didn't score. Bryant and Williams also hit shots, but the Knicks went from down five points to up by one point due to Anthony's late game heroics.
With 29.0 seconds remaining, the Lakers were level and had the ball. Bryant isolated into a familiar shot that rattled in-and-out by the finest of margins. That miss gave the Knicks one last chance to draw up a play with 9.3 seconds remaining on the clock.
"Of course," Bryant, with a smile, admitted that he asked to guard the Knicks forward on the final play of the game. "As soon as they lined up, I said, 'Melo, you're not going to touch the ball. I've hit like 10 game winner in this particular lineup. I know where you're going.'"
Sure enough, Anthony didn't catch the ball. Instead, Jose Calderon found space to launch a game-winning three-pointer. With 0.2 remaining on the clock and LA trailing by three points, the contest had ended. LA called a timeout, but a tipped ball secured the inevitable. LA lost by three points.
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"I wanted this [game]," Anthony said afterwards. "The going back and forth just made it that much better of a game. I'm pretty sure we gave the fans what they paid to see out there tonight."
LA lost its 53rd game of the season, which meant the Lakers kept their second seed in the lottery chase. Sometimes, a loss can feel like a win, as LA needs to finish with a top-three pick in the NBA Draft Lottery to retain its draft pick. Currently, the Phoenix Suns remain three games ahead of LA in the wins column, but the two teams meet twice more before the end of the season.
Kobe Bryant: "The most pleasure I got out of tonight was seeing Sasha." pic.twitter.com/eNyLdKhv7p — Shahan Ahmed (@shahanLA) March 14, 2016
Notes: Bryant finished with 14 points on 5-15 shooting in 27 minutes. Anthony led all scorers with 26 points in 38 minutes. Williams finished as LA's leading scorer with 15 points off the bench on 7-12 shooting. Williams had previously missed five games due to a strained hamstring.
Quote of the Night:
"The most pleasure I got out of tonight, honestly, was seeing Sasha [Vujacic]. When he first came here, he was this clean cut kid. He looked like he was 12. Just talking with him on the bus about what to expect in the NBA; now look at him. He's a vet. That was the most fun for me, was seeing him."
- Kobe Bryant on playing against former teammate Sasha Vujacic
