Bryant banked in his final shot over Dwyane Wade's outstretched arm at the buzzer, ending the superstars' sensational duel and sending the Lakers to their eighth straight victory, 108-107 over the Heat on Friday night.
Bryant scored 33 points, but his falling bank shot from straightaway likely will rank among the most incredible highlights of his career
- even if he refused to take too much credit for it.
"It was the luckiest shot I've ever taken, by far," Bryant said. "It felt good, (but) I just couldn't believe this ball might go in on this shot."
With 3-pointers by Bryant and Derek Fisher in the final 4.3 seconds, Los Angeles swiped an outstanding regular-season game away from the Heat and Wade, who scored nine of his 26 points in the final 2 minutes. A night of mediocre shooting finally cost the defending NBA scoring champion when he missed a free throw that gave Los Angeles one last chance to tie it with a two-point basket.
Bryant was forced to go for the win, and his improbable shot kept the Lakers atop the overall NBA standings while sending Miami to its eighth loss in 12 games.
"If you told me before the game that it would be decided by Kobe shooting a one-legged backboard 3, I'd have taken that," Wade said. "The basketball gods were with him on that one, but we did a great job and did what we're supposed to do on the road
- give ourselves a chance to win. But a great player hit an unbelievable shot. There are a couple of guys around the league that make big shots, but there ain't many, and he's one of them.
The matchup between U.S. Olympic teammates was the center of an action-packed game featuring a shoving match between Jermaine O'Neal and Lamar Odom, leading to Odom's ejection with 5:07 to play.
Neither star was perfect, with Wade struggling to a 7-of-21 shooting performance and Bryant missing the basket entirely on a potential tying shot with 24 seconds to play. Both came up big in the final seconds, but Bryant was just a bit bigger in front of his raucous home crowd.
"It's L.A.," said Fisher, who hit a 3-pointer with 4.3 seconds left, setting the stage for Wade's last miss and Bryant's heroics. "Why not have it be as dramatic as it was? ... I had to remind myself this was a regular season game in mid-December. I was jumping on Kobe's back like it was the finals."
O'Neal had 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Heat, who rebounded from an 18-point loss in Denver one night earlier with an impressive effort against the defending NBA champions.
After Wade put Miami ahead 102-100 with 49 seconds left on an awkward one-handed shot from the baseline, Miami appeared to sew up its first road win over the Lakers in five tries when Wade's two free throws put the Heat up 106-102 with 9.3 seconds to play.
"I only get a chance to play against them twice a year, and I take on the challenge and I enjoy it," Wade said. "I enjoy the competitive nature that I know Kobe's going to bring every night, and I'm going to bring the same things. I think he understands that as well, so it was a good battle going back and forth. He got the last laugh this time."
