Bobcats Complete Season Sweep of Lakers

There's just something about Charlotte.

The Lakers don't struggle with many teams, but since the Bobcats came into the league back in 2005, L.A. has rarely had what it takes to beat them. Tuesday night was no different, as the Lakers fell for the sixth time in their last seven meetings with the Bobcats, this time by a score of 94-84.

Before the game, Bobcats' part-owner (and former player under Phil Jackson in Chicago) wished his former coach good luck -- but Phil wasn't buying it.

"He knows his team has to win games," replied Jackson. "Right now he's trying to psych us out."

The Lakers didn't need any help in that department.

L.A. shot very poorly for the second straight game, and made just 38 of their 97 field goal attempts, good for just 39 percent on the night. They hit on only four of their 14 three-point attempts; just 28 percent. By contrast, the Bobcats were over 51 and 41 percent in those two categories respectively.

Kobe Bryant had another tough shooting night, and finished 11-of-28 from the field, albeit for a team-leading 25 points. Lamar Odom finished with 20 points and nine rebounds, and Pau Gasol had 16 and 11, while also contributing seven assists.

Despite the poor shooting, the Lakers had their chances. They led by seven late in the third, before allowing the Bobcats to go on a 15-4 run to end the quarter and grab a four-point lead of their own. And with Charlotte up 10 with under eight minutes to play, L.A. put together an 8-0 run to cut the lead to just two with five and a half minutes left. But the Bobcats scored the next 11 points, and that was that.

Besides the fact that this team seems to own the Lakers, an interesting subplot in this particular one was Gerald Wallace getting a bit of personal revenge. You may recall Wallace being laid out by Andrew Bynum earlier this season, on a play that was ruled a flagrant foul and ended up partially collapsing one of Wallace's lungs. He missed seven games because of it, but he was all there in this one. Wallace finished with 21 points, 13 rebounds, and five blocked shots, and was generally a monster out there all night long.