The Wizards brought out their 1962-63 Chicago Zephyrs jerseys, but lost to the Lakers after Caron Butler {picture} missed a 3 with 2 second left.
Caron Butler couldn't hit a 3 pointer that would give the Washington Wizards the win, and the Lakers held on to beat them 106-104.
Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 23 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists, and Pau Gasol added 17 points and 10 reb0unds.
The Lakers got off to a great start, outscoring the Wizards 22-9 with 7 minutes left in the first. Washington go! t within 6 with 8 minutes left in the 1st half, then Laker guard Jordan Farmar got the steal and ran to the other end where he slammed down a 2-handed dunk.
The Lakers were up 58-53 at the half after Andrew Bynum swatted Caron Butler's shot with a second left. Then the Lakers built a 82-65 lead with 4:35 remaining in the 3rd. Kobe Bryant threw it to Vladimir Radmanovic, who put in a 3. 85-65 Lakers. In a time span of about 4 minutes, the Wiz scored 5 points to get them to 85-70. Trevor Ariza then came up with a steal that lead to a tremendous dunk by Kobe Bryant.
The Lakers went up again, 99-83 with only 6 minutes left in the game. But Nick Young hit Andray Blatche with a pass and he threw it down. They got to 99-90 after Caron Butler tipped in a missed 3 pointer by Antawn Jamison.
Butler then got them to 103-102 with a big jumper. Kobe Bryant hit a jumper for LA, and put them up by 3. It was 106-104 with about 2 seconds left, and Caron Butl! er shot up a 3. But he missed and the Lakers won.
B! utler sc ored 26 points, Blatche had 18 and 12 rebounds, and Jamison scored 15 and grabbed 12 rebounds.
Bynum had a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds, and Vladimir Radmanovic had 14 {4-7 3-pointers}
