Coming into Friday night’s game against the Miami Heat, the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers had won three straight games against the Philadelphia 76ers, Denver Nuggets and the Indiana Pacers, but had their work cut out for them against Dwyane Wade and company on Friday night in Miami.

The Lakers had Kobe Bryant back in the lineup, after he basically sat out the entire month of February, but he has looked shaky at times, especially against the Denver Nuggets. Even though Kobe has been given the green light to play and he feels healthy enough to do so, he has shown signs that maybe he came back prematurely, but it hasn’t effected the Lakers in the win column so far.

On Friday night, Kobe looked to prove that he was healthy and ready to go and that is exactly what he did against the Miami Heat who he hit his first of five game-winning shots this season back in early January.

Despite the Lakers being the obvious favorites in this game, Dwyane Wade and company had no intentions on losing on their home floor as they were playing some inspired up basketball on both sides of the floor, but especially on defense as they threw a zone defense at the defending champs.

Even though the game saw many lead changes, more than any other game this season in fact, the Heat just seemed to know how to get under the defending champs skin and the game ultimately went into overtime after Kobe Bryant hit the game tying jumper with only seconds remaining.

Even with a game-high 39 points, Kobe Bryant wasn’t able to lead the Lakers to victory as Dwyane Wade was able to get his team on track in the overtime victory 114-111 and get the Miami Heat back to .500 at 31-31 heading into their Southeast division showdown with the Atlanta Hawks.

Despite the loss to the Miami Heat, the Los Angeles Lakers will look to get back to their winning ways against the Charlotte Bobcats on Friday night.