Heading into the NBA All-Star break, the two-time defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers were getting criticized left and right as they had lost three straight games heading into All-Star weekend in Los Angeles and were thought to be losing their flair for winning. Obviously, Kobe Bryant and company are not a team to be underestimated as they are as resilient as any team in the NBA today with arguably the best head coach of all time and Phil Jackson calling the shots on the sidelines.

With that being said, most people believe that it wishes to matter of time before the Lakers started turning around once again and get back on track. Once the final stretch of the NBA regular season got underway after the All-Star game, the Lakers seem to have flipped the switch as a of now won 15 of their last 16 games and look like the team to beat in the Western Conference once again.

On Sunday night, the Los Angeles Lakers hosted the New Orleans Hornets at the Staples Center and were shooting for their seventh straight win. Even though the Hornets have one of the best point guards in the league in Chris Paul leading the way and the Lakers Achilles’ heel is always against the best point guards in the NBA, it really didn’t matter on Sunday night as the defending champs cruised to a 102-84 victory.

Not only did Pau Gasol have an impressive performance with 23 points and 16 rebounds, but Kobe Bryant put on a show once again offensively with a game-high 30 points which is his third straight game with 30 or more points.

So as the NBA regular season quickly comes to a close with about 10 games left for the majority of the teams in the league, the Los Angeles Lakers look like they will be the team to beat in the playoffs as they seem ready to pull off a three-peat.

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