Hornets 118, Lakers 104

The Lakers, fresh off of two convincing victories, fan's hearts hand, returned to style of play that strikes resemblance to a time when things weren't so great in la la land. That time happened to be the first three quarters of opening night, and just about the majority of the last two seasons.

The Lakers home loss tonight against New Orleans brought fans back down to earth from that two-day acid trip that the midday radio hosts had them strung up on. "The Lakers are BACK." "This team is for real." "Kobe is happy."

Sounds a lot like me the other day, eh?

Anyhow, The Lakers still posted four in double figures: Kobe, Ronny Turiaf, Jordan Farmar, and Vladdy, but nothing really out of the ordinary jumped out at me this game.

The real story was on the other side of the ball.

Chris Paul broke a team record with assists, dishing out 21... yeah, 21 FREAKING ASSISTS.

Peja Stojakovic also broke a team record; three-pointers netted in a game, with 10.

Regardless of what really went on in this game, the hardcore Laker fans are going to say that the Hornets played unusually well. Considering the win brings their record to 4-0, we may have to eradicate the "unusual"; the Hornets look hot.

Around the league:

Speaking of hot, the team that ESPN the Magazine projected to finish 14 out of 15 in the west is undefeated. That's right, in case you missed it, the Clippers embarrassed the Bulls by a score of 97-91 tonight. An embarrassment by only 6 points? YEAH. We're talking about the Elton Brand-less Shawn Livingston-less Clippers going up against an Eastern Conference top five team at home.

Tally?

Clippers 3-0

Bulls 0-4

As cute as it is to see the Clippers on top of the Pacific Division standings, you just have to think that this can't last much longer.

Lakers 119, Jazz 109 

Let's not get too excited just yet, but the Lakers are playing good basketball. 

In their past two games, the Lakes have played the kind of ball that we would get maybe three or four times a month over the past couple of years.

Kobe seems happy, Fisher is leading the offense better than any point guard since... Derek Fisher, and the kids are making things happen.

 Remember last night, when I was all excited about five Lakers in double figures?

Well tonight, the Lakers had SIX with 10 or more.

The Lakers are playing similar to the way they were early on last season, before the injury bug hit. Does a healthy team mean that this kind of play stays consistent? I think there's a good possibility.

Kobe scored his obligatory 33 points, and got everyone excited, blocking an Andrei Kirilenko two handed jam in the fourth. D-Fish scored 19, And Andrew Bynum held down the fort down low with 9 rebounds and 15 points. Jordan Farmar, Ronny Turiaf, and Luke Walton all posted dubs.

Yeah, I know, we're only three games in, but to my utter disbelief, the Lakers are playing solid basketball.

I know, this is likely last on your viewing palate today, with what has the propensity to be the biggest football game in the history of the universe, but I've seen more than enough Laker fans out there that hopefully can look past the "smarmy 12 year old" tag.

Utah @ Lakers - 9:30pm ET

It finally looks like the Kobe drama has somewhat subsided, and maybe... just maybe, he'll stop being a pest off the court, and keep being dominant on the court. I've said it before, and i'll say it again. I don't like Kobe; but I will sure as hell miss him if he is gone.

I think a lot of Lakers fans take Kobe for granted. I've complained about Kobe's selfishness for years, heck, I even took the Clippers for a test drive at one point, but the bottom line still remains; we all secretly want Kobe to stay in town.

When the Lakers dropped their opening night game to the Rockets 93-95 and Kobe posted 45, I was immediately taken back to the past two seasons where Kobe ran the court, took 2500 shots, and yelled at everyone that missed a jumper.

Then, Friday, in Phoenix, the Lake Show pulled off that seemingly impossible bounce back, where the team takes everything they should have done the game before, and applies it to the next game.

That Phoenix game was one of the biggest statements the Lakers could have mad.

Kobe held himself (held himself?) to 16 points, while getting everyone involved (thank you god!).

FIVE LAKERS IN DOUBLE FIGURES? I don't think I've seen that in years.

Vlad Man Radmanovic put up 19, Kobe had his 16 and 11 rebounds, Andrew Bynum pulled down 13 rebounds and tacked on 14 points to boot. Derek Fisher put up 14, and Sasha Vujacic, who might I add is fooling everyone with the long hair, added 12.

Basically, the Lakers have all the momentum in the world going into tonight's game against the 2-1 Jazz.

Lakers fans can only hope for performances like Friday's, especially if they want to get through the tough upcoming stretch of games in one piece.

One thing Friday's game did do, was possibly suggest the idea that Kobe doesn't mean so much to the team, and that they could survive without them. Then again, how often are you going to see this line up post 5 in double figures?