Kobe Leads A Wild Comeback; LeBron James Hits A Game-Winner

We fell asleep at some point in the third quarter, and when we woke to see the Lakers were back in it, we thought it was an entirely different game. In a way, it was. L.A. overcame a 25-point deficit in New Orleans last night to beat the Hornets, 108-102. They scored the game’s last 20 points, and held the hosts scoreless for the final 6:47. It felt more like a month. Yeah, they got a huge boost from the zebras on a terrible call on Eric Gordon with the score tied in the last minute. But it still took an alien-like performance from Kobe Bryant to get it done. The Mamba went for 42 points, seven boards and 12 dimes, and hit the go-ahead fadeaway in the last minute before getting a fast break dunk and unleashing the Kobe Sneer at every person in the building. Sandwiched in-between was a nasty block from Dwight Howard (20 points, 15 boards) on Robin Lopez … So L.A. is back to .500, and even got some help from the Mavs last night. They beat Houston, 112-108, as O.J. Mayo went for a career-high 12 dimes and two big jumpers to push the Mavs out in front after a James Harden (28 points, nine assists) triple gave the Rockets a lead with under four minutes to go … While Houston’s late-game offense basically involved giving it to Harden and letting him draw a foul, Thomas Robinson was all over the place on the other end. He had two unbelievable blocks: one was a downward kill of a weak Mayo layup while the other one looked like he’d donned the Ironman suit, hovering a solid two feet above the rim … In a 101-83 destruction of Chicago, San Antonio got 18 a piece from Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. About the only good thing the Bulls did all night came from Nate Robinson: he played in the Air Yeezy IIs … Has anyone fallen off further this year than Gerald Wallace? We were literally shocked to find out he’s averaging only 8.5 points a night, with a PER of 12.35. Then last night in Brooklyn’s 21-point blowout over the Bobcats, with the score tied at 34 in the second frame, he took off along the baseline against Jeff Adrien… and came up about a full arm length short of the rim. Right now, he’s the NBA version of 50 Cent … If the season had ended before last night, Boston (No. 7 seed) would’ve opened up in Indiana (No. 2). It wouldn’t be the prettiest series, but it would be fun to watch. You knew from the start this one was going down like that back alley fight in Anchorman, so we couldn’t have been the only ones surprised to see Roy Hibbert (12 boards, six blocks) come out and grab seven rebounds (plus eight points) before the first official timeout. He’s the key for this team. He’s always been the key. He’s the anchor for that defense, that defense that fell apart on the game’s final possession when they let the Celtics go backdoor, and Jeff Green finished with a layup to win it in the last second. Boston finished with a 11-0 run … The McDonald’s All American Games just announced that Julius Randle, basically Zach Randolph with hops, will be added to the 2013 roster after an injury nearly took the rest of his season. Randle is back to shutting down YouTube mixes, so come April 3 in Chicago, he’ll be ready … Keep reading to hear about LeBron doing something in Miami for the first time…

Despite all LeBron‘s done and overcome since stabbing Cleveland in the heart and fleeing to South Beach, he had still yet to hit a go-ahead basket (0-for-9, including the playoffs, according to ESPN Stats) with under 10 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter or overtime with Miami. Well, after seeing him bulldoze Orlando’s entire team en route to a game-winning layup in the Heat’s 97-96 win against Orlando, you can change that to 1-for-10. Miami had gotten hammered on the glass – which had been their litmus test early in the season – and with 5:03 left when Miami called a timeout after a Nikola Vucevic (25 points, 21 rebounds) layup off the screen-n-roll, you had the feeling it was going to go one of two ways: either LeBron (26 points) would get that “enough of this s—” look on his face and flip the trigger for Video Game Mode, or the Heat would roll over and die. In the end, they survived moreso because Orlando couldn’t score. The Magic’s defense was still good, considering they were going against eight guys (five players, three refs). But it was on the other end that sealed the deal. They had a turnover on one possession. Then Vucevic airballed a tip-in. Then Tobias Harris got his layup snuffed twice right at the rim on the next trip. Up three with under a minute to play, Harris finally hit a runner, but Shane Battier drew the charge to nullify it. Then D-Wade (24 points) double-blocked DeQuan Jones‘ shot out of bounds. Then, that possession ended in an Al Harrington shot that nearly touched the moon before almost killing everyone underneath the basket. At that point, you knew it was over. Sure enough, on Miami’s next chance, LeBron went straight to the rack for a bucket and a W … Remember last year when there was that long debate over who you’d rather have going forward between Ricky Rubio and John Wall? In Minnesota’s 87-82 win over the Wiz, Wall was pretty good (19 points, seven dimes). But Rubio (15 points, seven rebounds, 11 assists, six steals) answered that debate emphatically. He was awesome, finishing in all types of crazy ways around the rim. With Washington down one in the last minute, Rubio also picked Wall’s pocket and it ended up in a J.J. Barea layup on the other end. It felt like the air went out of the Wizards. Their next possession was so bad, they should’ve cut some guys on the spot … Nene should get some type of award. With Washington down four with 2:26 left, the big man stepped up to the line, and took a free throw that the announcers described as “at least three feet short.” That was an understatement … Marc Gasol (23 points, 12 boards) was just enough to push Memphis closer to homecourt advantage in the first round during a 91-85 win over Portland. And did you see the behind-the-scenes video from our cover shoot with Damian Lillard? … In other scores from last night: Utah’s playoff chances took a punch to the gut when they fell 104-101 in Cleveland. Kyrie Irving had 20 points and 10 assists; Jeff Teague had 27 points and 11 assists in Atlanta’s 107-96 W over Philly; without ‘Melo, Raymond Felton had 26 points as New York barely escaped Detroit, 87-77; Toronto put a 27-point hurting on Phoenix; Klay Thompson had 20 points and drilled a triple that was the difference for Golden State against Sacramento, 87-83; and Blake Griffin dropped a triple-double (23 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists), as well as an incredible windmill alley-oop from Jamal Crawford (25 points) as the Clips ran Milwaukee out of the gym, 117-101 … We’re out like the Hornets’ 25-point lead.

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