Grant Hill Scores Game Winner
Los Angeles Lakers 98 @ Orlando Magic 100
Feb 5, Orlando - Orlando PF Dwight Howard got injured with 5:45 to play in this game and Orlando erased the Lakers' early 22 point lead to come back and win it with 0.8 seconds left on the clock. Grant Hill's jumper near the right side on the baseline sealed a 2 point win ove rthe Los Angeles Lakers whose 4 game winning streak was snapped.
Steve Francis scored 31 points and was impressive all night long as he kept making shot after shot to keep his team in the game. During the fourth quarter when his team caught up to the visitors, Kelvin Cato, Cuttino Mobley and Grant Hill helped take over.
Cato and Hill played brilliant defence against Lakers SG Kareem Rush and PF Carlos Boozer to stop the Lakers from getting too far ahead. Grant Hill finished with 12 points, Cato had 16, 10, 3 steals and 3 blocks. Sophomore Dwight Howard also put in a 13, 8 performance for the home side.
Head Coach Magic Johnson was throwing a fit after the game. "I can't believe we lost this one? How the heck did we give this one away? If we do this every night, we won't be going very far!"
The Lakers played a brillaint first quarter before struggling for the rest of the game. Their lack of defensive intensity really allowed the Magic to hold an advantage at the end of the game.
"Our lack of energy held us in check at the end of the game," Kwame Brown who scored 19 points and 16 rebounds said, "It wasn't the Magic who beat us, it was oruselves!"
The Lakers committed too many mistakes for the total course of the mtach. As assistant coach Brian Shaw analysed, "Turnovers and fouls. Way too many! Too many missed threes and our transition offence isn't working too well."
After falling behind late in the final period, Kwame Brown made a free throw to tie it up at 90 with 3:48 on the clock. Kelvin Cato's lone free throw put his team ahead 91-90 at the 3:37 mark before the score went up to 93-90 on a Cuttino Mobley jumper.
Ratchuk passed three defenders on his way to the hoop with 2:16 left and then stole the inbounds pass and scoring once again to send the Lakers up 93-94. Artest's intimidating defence forced Hill's rushed shot but the lakers failed to grab the rebound before Kelvin Cato snapped it up to dunk home 2 of his 16. Ratchuk then assisted a Kwame Brown dunk and the Lakers went up again 95-96. The Lakers then missed an opportunity to score after being forced into a 24 second violation.
Orlando leapt onto their opportunity to win the game with Steve Francis sinking a deep three over the smaller Juan Dixon with 39.0 seconds left. "That was a tough shot to hit," Cuttino Mobley exclaimed afterwards, "Props to my man Stevie for that shot!" Boozer then dunked hom 2 more points to level the game at 98-98 with 28.6 seconds left.
What came next was a huge defensive blunder as the Lakers played stiffling defence and forced Steve Francis to put up an ill-advise leaning jumper which barely hit the rim but both Lakers big men hesistated and moved out of the paint, allowign Kelvin Cato to gather i nthe rebound and passing to a wide open Hill. Hill knocked down the shot to win it with 0.8 secodns left on the clock.
Ron Artest finished with 19, 5 and 5, Carlos Boozer had 16, 17, and 6 and Juan Dixon chipped in 11 from off the bench. Kareem Rush had an off night, misfiring a lot to finish with 14 while rookie Fredrick Ratchuk made 9 assists but also commited 5 turnovers.
"Our team just wasn't playing well tonight. Next game against Lamar and Caron we will show everyone what we really are like!" Brian Grant promised.
NOTES:
PF Dwight Howard has been diagnosed with a broken bone in his foot. He is out for 2 weeks... SF Luke Walton, F Caron Butler and F Lamar Odom play against their former team in a week... The Lakers drop to 4th place in the West... Current Record: 11-5 (6-0, 5-5)
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