Desperation Three

Perhaps there is merit to the saying that we should be thankful for what we have, and that we Lakers fans are entirely too spoiled, and that complaining about last night's thrilling (and thoroughly exasperating) victory over Golden State would just be a whole lot of fuss over nothing. After all, as Forum Blue And Gold pointed out, "titles are not lost in December games."

But even given that, this has to be said: the Lakers should not need a 44-point, 11-assist performance and 43 minutes out of Kobe Bryant (not to mention 27 points, 12 boards in 45 minutes out of his sidekick Pau Gasol) to defeat the Golden State Warriors. They just shouldn't.

It certainly seemed like Kobe was doing his part to adhere to the game plan early on, racking up seven assists in the first 12 minutes of play and pounding the ball inside to Gasol and Bynum. What made the Lakers stray from that plan and play a run-and-gun game of one-upmanship with the Warriors from the second quarter onwards, I'll never know.

Regardless. The point is that the Lakers walked away from the Staples Center with the same number of losses they had when they showed up that night, avoiding what would be their third loss in four games. This one was all Kobe-Gasol. They needed every bit of them.