By D. Chip James / Springboro, OH

Hitting an NBA record 12-three pointers Tuesday night at home against the Sonics en route to a 21-point Laker win may be exactly what Kobe Bryant and the Lakers need to get themselves going and to finish the final month before all-star weekend on a hot streak.

A hot streak is exactly what Kobe was experiencing Tuesday in the Staples Center. Bryant’s previous season high for three’s made in a game since the start of this disappointing season for LA? Three, at Portland, in the Lakers first game of the season.

Overall, Kobe ended the game hitting 12 of his 18 attempted shots from behind the arc, including an NBA-record nine in a row at one point in the game, and finished with 45 points.

It seems to be the next phase for Bryant in a season-long attempt to raise his game to the next level and carry the world champs out of mediocrity. So far this season, he’s upped his rebound and assist per game averages from last year’s 5.5 a game mark to averaging 7.7 and 7.2 respectively. His scoring has also raised, now second in the league with a 27.1-point per game average.

Bryant’s three-point barrage suggests that better things are to come in Laker-land and maybe soon. At the start of this season, he was coming off the worst three-point shooting season of his career as he sank just 25 percent of his long-balls in last year’s championship season. On the season, he’s hitting only 28.3 percent of his threes, but a game like this could propel him into a shooting frenzy, a frenzy that the Lakers could definitely use as they sit 11 games behind Sacramento for first place in the Pacific.

If Kobe can continue his high-level of play maybe his shooting will rub off on the Lakers’ role players who have seen dismal results from deep this season. The Lakers wing players need to be at least a threat from deep and if they can do so, keeping pressure off the Big Fella down low, January could be the month that the champs turn this thing around. With home games against Cleveland, Miami, Golden State and inter-city rival the Clippers, the opportunity is there for the Lakers to make a run in the west.

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