Despite the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers struggling as of late with three straight losses coming into Tuesday night’s game against the Toronto Raptors, it would be hard to argue that Kobe Bryant and company haven’t been the one of the most entertaining teams to watch in the NBA this season.

When Kobe Bryant sat out basically the entire month of the February with an ankle sprain, amongst other injuries, the Lakers played brilliantly without their superstar winning four of the five games they played without the Black Mamba. The only loss came against their hated rivals in the Boston Celtics which was decided by just one point after Derek Fisher missed a last second shot.

Before the game against the Boston Celtics, the Lakers hadn’t really missed Kobe Bryant in the lineup as they seemed to play some impressive team basketball in his absence. The one thing the Lakers missed more than anything when Kobe was resting with his multiple injuries was someone who could turn it on in the fourth quarter and close out games.

The Lakers may have been riding a three game losing streak coming into Tuesday night’s game against the Toronto Raptors, but all three of the loses came in close games where the Lakers could’ve easily been playing the Toronto Raptors with a six game winning streak.

The only game got away from them was against the Charlotte Bobcats when the Lakers lost in convincing fashion 98-83. for some reason the Charlotte Bobcats always seem to have the edge against Los Angeles Lakers, but the other two losses were decided by no more than three points.

Ever since the Lakers traded for forward Pau Gasol back in 2008, Los Angeles hasn’t lost three straight games in that time period and a fourth straight loss game could be virtually devastating, but Kobe Bryant had no intentions of letting that happen as he scored a game-high 32 points and hit his sixth game-winning shot with only 1.9 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to get the win 109-107.

Even though the Los Angeles Lakers do have things that need to be corrected on the team, this win over the Toronto Raptors definitely a step in the right direction as they try and stay on top of the Western Conference heading into the playoffs next month.