Yet another improbable win happened.

The Lakers looked listless after the first half. They were down by 25 points at the halftime break. But the Lakers reached deep down, persevered, and fought their way back. It ended in a miraculous victory for the Lakers, 121-112. Isn’t that amazing? They were down 25 and they ended up winning by nearly double digits?

It wasn’t like the Blazers dominated from the jump, either. In fact, we thought the Lakers were going to put it away early after they made their first 6 shots of the game. They were actually up, 18-4.

Portland came back, though. They did more than come back. Anfernee Simons made a three to give the Blazers a 39-38 lead. Then Damian Lillard and Patrick Beverley talked like grown adults, which resulted in a Beverley tech.

Then the rout was on. At least, we thought it was going to be. The Blazers made all the threes while the Lakers couldn’t make a shot, kept turning the ball over, and couldn’t stop anybody. Lillard punctuated it with this shot from the logo (but not really because he was not stepping on the logo… never mind). Portland finished the second quarter in ridiculous fashion, a 35-8 run. Portland won the second quarter overall with a 45-13 margin! It was a 71-46 halftime lead by the Blazers and we thought it was all over by then.

The Lakers have been known for fake comebacks since last season so I really just thought it was cute when the Lakers chipped the lead little by little. I thought it was adorable that LeBron James did an alley-oop slam from a Dennis Schröder lob. This couldn’t happen, right? After all, it was the dreaded third quarter.

Something funny happened. Schröder and LeBron seemingly couldn’t miss. Suddenly, the game was cut to a five-point deficit going into the fourth period, 91-86.

Then everything seemed to go the Lakers’ way. Troy Brown, Jr. scored 7 consecutive points for Los Angeles. Thomas Bryant made a three. 50/50 balls would go to Patrick Beverley. And LeBron would hunt for Lillard on offense.

Meanwhile, the Blazers had a difficult time getting shots off. The threes wouldn’t drop anymore. Dame Time stopped ticking. And the Blazers defense looked even worse.

With about two minutes left, Thomas Bryant made two dunks in a row (one from a missed Troy Brown, Jr. dunk that propelled upward). Then with under a minute left, Brown made a three to put the Lakers up 9. What was going to be an L (a capital “L”) from the Lakers somehow turned into a big fat dub. It was quite a game.

LeBron, Bryant, and Schröder carried them for most of the game but Troy Brown, Jr. came through in the fourth by scoring all 10 of his points in the fourth quarter. They really needed that from Brown because the bench wasn’t as productive as it usually was. LeBron scored 37 points and grabbed 11 boards. Bryant emphatically snapped out of his slump with a career-best 31 points to go along with 14 boards. Schröder hit some big shots on his way to 24 points; he also had 6 boards and 8 assists. And Beverley hounded Lillard all game.

Anfernee Simons went for 31 points (7 threes!) but he didn’t make a three in the fourth quarter. Lillard did have 24-6-10 but he only shot 5 for 17. Jerami Grant had 19 points. Portland made 17 threes but only five in the second half. In fact, they only scored 41 points after halftime. That would be low even for a game in the 90s.

The Lakers dominated the points in the paint, 62-38, as well as the boards (51-38). The Lakers did have 12 turnovers while Portland had 11. But you know what’s most impressive? The Lakers had 12 turnovers in the first half. That means that they did not turn the ball over in the second half. That’s incredible.

Honestly, what a comeback the Lakers did (on the 17th anniversary of Kobe’s 81-point game, no less). I’m going to stop short on calling it a turning point of the season because, let’s get real, this is probably the Lakers’ 19th turning point of the season. If they can consistently perform well and win games then we can look back at these moments.

L.A. is back now to 12th place. They’re still two games behind the 6th seed (now the L.A. Clippers at 25-24). But guess who the Lakers have next on Tuesday! They have the Clippers! Funny how things work out!