Loss for Lakers Ends Reign Atop League

The Lakers six-game winning streak and stint atop the other 29 teams in the NBA is over after the New Orleans Hornets beat L.A. 116-105 last night at Staples Center. The game wasn’t the only thing the Lakers lost, key player Lamar Odom went down with a hyper-extended knee and now joins fellow injured players Luke Walton and Jordan Farmar. David West (40 points and 11 rebounds) and Chris Paul (32 points and 15 assists) scored a combined 72 points to end the Lakers’ two-day run with the league’s best record; the Lakers now share the top spot with Cleveland (27-2).

Lakers coach Phil Jackson expressed his unhappiness about Odom’s injury to the L.A. Times saying, “We’ll have to have some other guys help us.” Odom will undergo an MRI exam today and it remains undecided if he will play in tonight’s game against Golden State. Walton will be out at least two more weeks due to a sore foot and Farmar won’t be back for at least another six weeks after undergoing knee surgery. The Lakers previously beat New Orleans (21-10) twice this season, both time on the road, but couldn’t keep it together on their home court. Hornets Coach Byron Scott was eager to beat the Lakers after L.A. led by 21 points in each of the games in New Orleans and told the Times, “Our character has been tested the last two times we played them. I thought over there they probably felt that we couldn’t beat them, and I thought we had to try to prove a point to not only them but to ourselves.”

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