115 points to begin the week certainly proved torturous. The early season narrative of struggling against above .500 teams coupled with their awful fourth quarter scoring seemingly doomed Charlotte against the Warriors. Plus, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist being out left the team a defender down.

Obviously, Charlotte had a chance to take a scheduled loss against a quality opponent and gear up for a softer upcoming opponent in Orlando. Instead, the team decimated a weak Golden State defense to win a shootout. As Kemba Walker iced a 115-111 win in regulation, the crowd filed out, dizzied by the onslaught of points from both squads.

Charlotte reached two important apexes in that game. They saw the guard play they expected from Walker (31/5/5) and the spacing they expected in the Al Jefferson era. Bad defensive teams, the Warriors included, should struggle to stop the Bobcats-Hornets from getting their shots, especially when the first unit gets Jefferson involved early in the play. At some point, defenses must collapse to help their center, especially in the case of oft-injured and aging Andrew Bogut. When that happened on Tuesday night, Walker and Gerald Henderson made the Warriors pay.

The win brought the team one win away from another apex, a .500 record, as they prepared to face the woeful Orlando Magic at home. If ever there was a time to back up two straight amazing offensive performances, this had to be it. In their destructions of Philadelphia and Golden State, open shots fell, the team rallied behind their best players and - most importantly - the team scored in the 4th quarter. The stars had aligned to push toward respectability before a rematch with the Pacers.

Unfortunately, Charlotte played their worst game of the season against an equally unbalanced and awful Magic squad. Every possession looked labored; every shot contested and not just at the finish.

The team botched two early fast-break opportunities with awful passing. Poor execution on set plays left shooters with little option but to force most of their shots up with little time left on the shot clock. When the defense did something well, the offense would immediately negate the play. Walker had two early steals and even blocked 4 shots, but his five turnovers to four assists killed the team's energy.

Jefferson played the role of ball-stopper too often against an overwhelmingly active Nikola Vucevic. Walker struggled mightily from the floor (4-18, 0-4 from 3). Henderson's putrid shot selection went on full display (3-14 including what felt like a million fadeaways). Even the bench, a bright spot lately on offense, struggled to produce for the second unit with the exception of Cody Zeller's career night (10/6/2).

After two excellent offensive displays, Charlotte put up 83 against one of the NBA's bleakest franchises. When the Pacers - one of the NBA's strongest teams hosted the Bobcats-Hornets, morale had to be pretty low. Indiana dominated the second half in their first foul-filled meeting.

Surprisingly, Charlotte played a largely effective game. Though they lost, the team stayed competitive throughout. They played one of the best offensive quarters of the season, scoring 30 in the second quarter, while forcing the Pacers to rely on role-players like Lance Stephenson rather than stars like Paul George. Stephenson played his best game of the year to date - outscoring his 2013 average by 8 points. Forcing Indiana to rely on secondary players worked well throughout the night, but the Pacers balanced their attack. Six Indiana players scored in double figures, showing exactly how effective their rotation can be.

Playing well against the Pacers in a loss should have prepared them for a sub-.500 Lakers squad. These are the games mediocre teams lose even with good strategy.

Returning home to face a beleaguered and fellow .500-level Los Angeles Lakers team had to feel good. Nowhere near the level of talent that the Pacers had, the Lakers featured a recently returned Kobe Bryant from an Achilles injury and a cavalcade of guest stars; players on one-year contracts.

The Lakers, in an attempt to keep payroll low for the coming crop of free agents, cobbled together a roster of over-rated young players in danger of washing out of the NBA (Wesley Johnson, Xavier Henry) and aging veterans looking to stay relevant (Steve Blake, Jordan Farmar, Chris Kaman, Jordan Hill). With Steve Nash nursing a rash of injuries that have plagued his 41-year-old body since he arrive in LA and Kobe trying to reclaim his form, the team has managed to stay afloat in the West.

Couple this with their recent back-and-forth in the media over the role of power forward Pau Gasol, and the bobcats-Hornets should have won.

For the first three quarters, they did win. They dominated the paint, shut down Johnson and Henry - two of the better Lakers players this year - and looked poised to forget the tough pair of losses preceding the Lakers game.

Then the 4th quarter ruined everything. The Lakers defense, woebegone as it may have been in recent games, tightened up. The shots stopped falling.

Bryant, struggling mightily in his return games, found his way against Charlotte in the final minutes. He got a key foul against Henderson on a shot fake that would likely not have worked against Kidd-Gilchrist. He found his big men near the basket when the defense collapsed around him. He foiled the Bobcats-Hornets in one-on-one situations and the Lakers, as they have so often, followed suit on defense.

Kobe knew how to win. This week especially, the Bobcats-Hornets did not. The difference between a 1-3 week and a 3-1 week lies somewhere between the good game against the Warriors, the bad game against Orlando and the Kobe game.

Until they figure out the difference, 1-3 may continue to be the norm.