Kobe Bryant dunks on Nikola Pekovic, but their fates turned after the game (VIDEO)

The Los Angeles Lakers rolled over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night, dominating the visitors 116-94 to bring themselves within two games of the Houston Rockets for the final playoff spot in the West. They've now one four of their last five games and look primed to make sure this season isn't a total debacle.

The highlight came early — in the game's first minute, in fact. After a deflection out of bounds, Kobe Bryant took an inbounds pass from Steve Nash and posted up Wolves wing Derrick Williams on the Lakers logo on the left wing. With a quick move to his left, Kobe sped past Williams and quickly elevated for a dunk. Center Nikola Pekovic attempted to challenge the shot, but he could only get there late enough to become a victim of Kobe's vicious right-handed slam.

While the Wolves had little luck on the court, Pekovic's fortune flipped with Bryant as soon as the game ended. After the jump, check out photos from their totally opposite experiences.

Whenever a game is played in Los Angeles, it's likely that a few celebrities will show up. And even though it may be considered bad form for the losing team to have fun in the wake of a blowout, the Wolves probably deserve a little leeway after all the injuries they've had this season. Plus, can you really get mad at Pekovic for wanting to hang out with this guy?

For those who don't recognize him, that's funnyman Zach Galifianakis, best known as star of "The Hangover" but also a legendary comic responsible for the very great web series "Between Two Ferns" and some of the best standup you'll ever see (WARNING: lots of NSFW language). Here's how Kevin Love captioned the photo on Instagram:

Pek might be the biggest Zach fan on the planet. Happy this intro was made. #betweentwoferns

What Love didn't say is that Galifianakis looks roughly 1/3 the size of the famously burly Pekovic, almost like a five-year-old with a beard. Maybe it hurts!

Oh, and Pek is wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt, because of course he is.

Kobe, on the other hand, did not have such good look after his impressive night of 33 points on 13-of-22 shooting. Like many Angelenos, he got caught in serious traffic:

Nothing like bumper to bumper after a game. Shiesh! #countontraffic twitter.com/kobebryant/sta…

— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) March 1, 2013

The #countontraffic hashtag is a reference to his newest Nike ad, but it looks as if Kobe most definitely didn't expect traffic this severe. He could have avoided it, too — Kobe is well known for taking a helicopter to games when necessary, or even using it to give a ride to a doctor's appointment. In this case, though, he made the wrong call.

Let this be a lesson that success on the basketball court does not always carry over to real life. If anything, it's one of the few places where someone might have control over the outcome.