The Los Angeles Lakers are now the only undefeated team in the National Basketball League.

Prior to last nights victory over the New Orleans Hornets, the Lakers shared the undefeated title with the Atlanta Hawks. Yes, the Hawks, that team in the Eastern Conference that hasn’t done anything in years.

The 6-0 Hawks faced the Boston Celtics last night in Boston and thought that they were ready to show revenge to the Celtics after being ousted of last year’s playoffs in the first round. Unfortunately for the Hawks, Paul Pierce didn’t feel much sympathy.

After the Hawks hit a three pointer to take a one point lead with seven second left in the game, Paul Pierce hit a 20 ft jumper with 0.5 seconds left and eventually seal the win for the Celtics, who now stand at 8-1.

The Lakers however didn’t surrender their undefeated status to the Hornets. With a 21 point lead at the half, the Lakers had enough of a margin to hold on to a win, even after the Hornets made a huge push late in the second half and came within three pionts.

On ESPN.com, the Daily Dime provides the best way to possibly describe where the Lakers currently stand and where they are heading.

It was the perfect metaphor for the Lakers’ perfect start: a dagger 3-pointer by Kobe Bryant, with James Posey right in his grill, that staved off a New Orleans comeback and gave the Lakers a 93-86 win over the Hornets.

The win pushed the Lakers to 7-0, and with Atlanta’s loss in Boston it made them the league’s sole undefeated team. It’s a status they may hang on to for a while — seven of L.A.’s next eight games are in the friendly confines of Staples Center, starting with Friday’s contest against Detroit.

And although Bryant denied flashing back to the Finals while draining the shot over Posey, it symbolized the motivation for L.A.’s awe-inspiring start. The Lakers were exposed as soft, mentally and physically, in that six-game defeat to Boston last year, and their start has been a response to that discovery. What better way to cap it than by nailing a shot over the former Boston defensive stopper who so frustrated the Lakers in last season’s Finals?

For that matter, an earlier Posey-related episode helped symbolize L.A.’s newfound toughness. It all started when Chris Paul used a first-quarter stoppage in play to take exception to a blow from Pau Gasol underneath; Gasol, notorious as a shrinking violet in such situations, made sure to respond. When Posey — who hadn’t even checked into the game yet — came off the bench to intervene, Gasol would have none of it, and each earned a tech for his troubles. It never got physical, but it showed L.A.’s resolve.

“[Paul and I] were just talking,” said Gasol, “James came in, and I was just trying to go back to the bench because there was a timeout. [But] you gotta do what you gotta do out there.”

Just to make sure where they stood, Andrew Bynum did get physical with Posey later — earning a technical foul for shoving him after a Hornets score when the two were fighting for position underneath. While we don’t typically celebrate technical fouls, this play was indicative of an edge to the Lakers that was missing last season.

However, this win was impressive for much more than just a few displays of machismo. Most notably, the Lakers’ defense suffocated the Hornets for three quarters, holding them to just 30 points in the first half.

That’s impressive in any environment, but to do so on tired legs in a back-to-back game, in a hostile venue, against a contender that had four days of rest and had circled the date on the calendar when the schedule came out … folks, that was simply awesome. Especially since, as Phil Jackson pointed out before the game, early-season back-to-backs tend to be more difficult since not everyone has their sea legs yet.

L.A.’s defense is the main reason it is the unquestioned top dog in the NBA hierarchy at the moment, and Wednesday’s first three quarters showed the biggest difference from last season: Bynum. It’s not just that he’s back — it’s that he’s in shape, active and engaged. He was, in my estimation, far better defensively than he’d been before the injury last season.

“We have a shot-blocker [now],” said Lakers coach Phil Jackson, “and Andrew makes our abilities different from what they were before. Last year, we had to play spaces when he wasn’t in the lineup, and now we can funnel people towards him.”

It showed when he rejected consecutive shots by Paul in the first quarter, but even more impressive than the four shots he rejected was his constant presence in the paint. Bynum was always lurking on the help side, and it effectively closed off most routes to the basket and turned the Hornets into jump shooters.

“They’re really loading up [on the strong side],” said the Hornets’ David West. “You’re not going to be able to beat them on one side of the floor. You have to get the ball to the other side.”

Jackson didn’t use Bynum as much after the break because he felt Bynum was tiring after playing nearly the entire first half, and you could see how different the Lakers looked defensively without him. Paul shredded L.A.’s screen-and-roll defense down the stretch en route to his seventh straight 20-point, 10-assist effort — putting him halfway to Nate Archibald’s league record of 14 — but when Bynum was on the floor the Lakers were plus-20.

Bynum also had a nice effect on Gasol, who is much more comfortable defending the power forward spot. He was able to use his length to bother the jump shooting of West, who finished 9-of-19, and the combination of the two on the floor meant there was always a shot-blocker around the rim.

So dominant were the Lakers through three quarters, in fact, that it appeared they’d cruise to an easy win with a very limited contribution from Bryant. Kobe had just 13 points on 4-of-14 shooting when L.A. found itself clinging to an 83-80 lead with 1:07 left and the shot clock winding down — after New Orleans had scored on nine straight trips. That’s when he sized up Posey, let it rip and extinguished any hope of a Hornets’ comeback.

“I just backed him up and I knew [Posey] had help behind him,” said Bryant. “I knew it was going to be a tough shot and he was going to be draped all over me.”

“You can’t defend much better than what Posey did,” said Hornets coach Byron Scott. “Pose was right in is face, and that’s what great players do — they make big shots.”

And what great teams do, he might add, is win big games. So far, nobody has been greater than the Lakers.