Collective Brain Fart By The Hornets Leads To Kobe Bryant's Easiest Points Of The Year

Kobe Bryant played brilliantly down the stretch (42 points on 21 shots), helping the Lakers finish the game on a 20-0 run (!).

But you don't end a game on a 20-0 without some help from the opposition, and the Hornets certainly lent a hand by melting down in every phase in the final seven minutes.

The most embarrassing moment came with 25 seconds left. The Lakers were up by two and inbounding the ball. The Hornets needed to either steal the inbounds pass or foul. But for some reason the Hornets seemed to forget which basket was theirs, allowing two Lakers players to run freely toward the hoop.

Kobe caught the pass all by himself at mid-court, and dunked it home for the exclamation point.

Note that the Lakers are shooting on the basket on the left here, but for some reason the Hornets defended the basket on the right side. Weird: