Preview: Lakers, Heat Square Off

The Lakers look to extend their season high 9 game winning streak to 10 tonight as the battle the Miami Heat for the 2nd time this season.

Kobe Bryant, LAL SG

LA is coming off a 96-83 win against the Blazers on Tuesday night. KObe Bryant led the way with 30 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists. “The real value of a super player is that he makes other players better,” coach Phil Jackson said of Kobe Bryant. “You can see the apparent emphasis of Kobe’s game to get other people involved and make the rest of his team better.”

Jordan Farmar came off the bench and gave the Lakers 21 points.

“We have, in my estimation, the best bench in the league,” Kobe Bryant said. “Guys come in and do an extremely good job of playing, moving the basketball, knocking down shots and just playing extremely well.”

The LA bench scored a total of 41 points, all coming from Ronny Turiaf, Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar.

Pau Gasol finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds. “We’re having a lot of fun, I think we’re enjoying it, but at the same time, we’re focused and alert,” said Gasol. “We’re excited, but at the same time we’re really focused on every game. Next game is Miami, and we’re going to try to win that one, too.”

The Lakers have already defeated the Heat earlier this season, 104-94. Kobe Bryant led the way with 33 points on 10-15 shooting from the field. “This is the hump game and it was a good game to win,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “We didn’t play particularly well but we were able to win the game.”

Since that game, the Lakers have yet to lose, winning 7 straight after.

LA is currently holding the first seed in the Wesern Conference due in large part to their current 9 game winning streak. “I’ve just talked about home-court advantage and what we want to do in terms of getting ourselves in position to compete in the playoffs,” coach Phil Jackson said.

Heat Starting 5: