Tonight is the night. Rematch!

The Los Angeles Lakers host the Miami Heat at Staples Center. The Lakers will be rocking their special Sunday white home jerseys and the Heat will be in their away red.

This game will see plenty of firepower as the best player on the best team in Kobe Bryant will face up against the leagues leading scorer Dwyane Wade.

Last time these teams met was just a few weeks ago in Miami, the first night of a back to back. With the Lakers behind by 2 points and the clock running down, Kobe pulled up for the jumper at the buzzer from the left top of the key, and the ball swirled in and out. Kobe described the shot in comparison to the one two days ago against the Pacers, “In the fourth quarter, you just have to stay home a little more … but I had shots in the past, like the one in Miami that felt good, but it came in and out. So I made sure that one stayed down.”

This time, the Lakers are ready to go and will do their best to sufficate the Heat early. The absense of Lamar Odom, Jordan Farmar, and Luke Walton are clearly going to hurt in this game as the duo of Dwyane Wade and Shawn Marion can be extremely deadly.

Kobe will have his hands full gaurding Wade, especially if the officials favor him throughout the game like we’ve often seen. Since the loss in Miami, the Lakers are 8-2 with Kobe averaging 32.3 points per game, 5.5 rebounds per game, and 5.1 assists per game.

The Miami Heat come to Staples Center carrying a 19-16 record. They haven’t won at Staples since Christmas Day 2004 and hopefully that trend will continue on tonight.

Interesting matchups will include, Kobe vs Wade, Gasol vs Haslem, and Marion vs whoever the Lakers throw at him. This is a game where Bynum should have a clear path to dominate. The Heat lack a real strong center that can hold his ground against Bynum. The coaching staff is sure to pump Andrew up for this game as I’m positive Kobe will be dishing plenty of balls inside to him.

Prediction: Lakers win by 16