A Lakers fan hits half-court shot to win cash for second straight game

For the second straight home game, a Lakers fan hit a half-court shot for a cash prize.

Logan Thomas, 26, won $25,000 Friday night, drilling the shot just before the start of the fourth quarter.

“It’s insane,” he said. “The last time I played basketball was high school. I might’ve played a handful of times since then. I haven’t shot a basketball in a couple years.”

Thomas, who lives in Fairfield, a town north of San Francisco, was driving from Phoenix through Los Angeles with his girlfriend, who is moving in with him. She had never been to a NBA game before, and so they went on the secondary ticket market and paid a little more than $320 to see the Lakers and Bucks.

Originally from Indiana and a big Lance Stephenson fan, Thomas made sure to do Stephenson’s air-guitar celebration after hitting the shot. He wanted to look over at the Lakers’ bench for LeBron James and Stephenson’s reaction, but the emotion was too much.

“I pretty much blacked out – but I had to do the air guitar,” he said.

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A Lakers’ staffer said they thought no two fans had ever made the half-court shot in back-to-back games.

Dean Tran won $100,000 by making a half-court shot Wednesday, resetting the compounding jackpot for Thomas’ shot. He’s the ninth person to win the promotion, which began in 2006-07 and the third this season.

Thomas said he’d put the winning right towards the $100,000-plus he owes in student loans.

“He made about 75k more than me,” Thomas said of Tran, “but I’ll take it.”

dan.woike@latimes.com

Twitter: @DanWoikeSports