As the old saying goes "Never under estimate the heart of a champion".

But if you have watched the three-time defending Champion Los Angeles Lakers play this season it would be very easy to write them off, especially against a team so powerful and so deep as the Dallas Mavericks.

The Mavericks came eager, the momentum of being the NBA's hottest team, trying to break a streak of 23 straight losses to the Lakers on their home floor.  As the game started Dallas simply embarrassed the Lakers, extending their lead quickly to 30 points.  As Howard Beck of the L.A. Daily News puts it 'the low murmur of doubters who said the dynasty was done, that the Lakers needed to be gutted, had grown into a roar.'  Ring it up, the Lakers were done.

Down by 27 points heading into the final period L.A. needed a miracle.  With unity as rare as a Bulls win as of late the Lakers chances looked glim, but some how the Lakers sparked as the Mavericks stalled, L.A. closing out the game with an amazing 41-13 run which gave them the unlikeliest 105-103 victory, unsuprisingly greatest fourth-quarter comeback in franchise history.

"It shows," Kobe Bryant said, "that the heart of a champion still beats inside of us. Same thing we did to Sacramento in the playoffs. We're fighters."

Beck reports that the Lakers entered the game as a last placed team, winning only seven times in 20 games.  Many doubt that this team will miss the playoffs - a scenario unheard off in the preseason - with their talent and experience, and the comeback road had to being somewhere, but in this fashion?

"Undoubtedly, it's an emotional lift," coach Phil Jackson said. "And a team that's been playing under duress, and as I told them, ridicule actually, from sportscasters and from fans alike, for our ineptitude to start the season. It's a good win. It's a notable win."