Steady Rolling

It's good to be the Los Angeles Lakers right now.

The competition continues to unimpress, but gone, it appears, are the days when we had to worry about dropping a game like this. This Lakers team sees an inferior opponent and chokes them out fast. Against the Chris Paul-less New Orleans Hornets tonight, L.A. ran out to a 21-point lead in the second quarter, grooving on the smooth inside stylings of Andrew Bynum, and used the cushion to give the starters yet another restful second half. The final score was 110 to 99.

Phil Jackson let the garbage-time unit play almost the entire fourth quarter, with predictably unsexy results. The lead got down to 10 with about two minutes remaining, but the starters weren't called back into active duty. After the game, Phil said of this decision:

I was going to suffer the consequences tonight. One way or the other, [the reserves] have got to take responsibility for how they play.

The Hornets never got closer than nine, however, and Jordan Farmar kept the world safe for tacos with a last-second block of a Darren Collison layup.

The Lakers have now won seven in a row, all by double digits, but snapped their streak of holding opponents under a point per possession. Their record is 14-3, the NBA's best. Next up are the Miami Heat on Friday night in what I believe will be the Lakers' 53rd consecutive home game.