Kobe Bryant saves the day once again as a baseline jumper prevents the Lakers from possibly losing their fourth straight game. Once again the Lakers looked like a team that’s trying to find their groove heading down the stretch.

Things were looking up as the Lakers were up by five (29-24) after the 1st quarter, but then saw the Raptors outscore them by 13 in the 2nd to take a 58-50 lead heading into halftime.

Four Lakers were in double figures by the time the night ended with Bryant once again leading the way, putting in 32 points on 11-20 shooting. Andrew Bynum had 22, Pau Gasol had 17 and Lamar Odom added 10 off the bench.

The Raptors shot 7-10 from the three-point line in the 1st half, but ended the night at 9-22. Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani led the Raptors with 22 and 21 points respectively.

The scored was tied at 107 after Bosh made a game tying three pointer with less than 10 seconds to go in the game. After a timeout was called by the Lakers, Bryant got the ball and headed towards the baseline after a late double team arrived. Bryant faded towards the sideline and sank an 18-foot fadeaway jumpshot with 1.9 seconds remaining. The Raptors were out of timeouts meaning they couldn’t advance the ball to half court for the inbounds and had to settle for long distance heave from the back court that wasn’t close.

The Lakers will face the Phoenix Suns on Friday night at the US Airways Center.