It's official: Lakers get to lose to Oklahoma City in first round

OKC can be competitive with any team in the NBA.
They have great speed and athleticism. OKC did a great job with blocked shots but LA killed them in rebounding. They are also a poor outside shooting team.
If they get a legitimate center and can keep Westbrook and Durant, they will be a contender for the next 5+ years.
I am not worried that OKC will beat LA 4 out of the next 5 games.
LA is holding OKC to 16 points under their season average.

Tj

You guys drew the short straw. OKC is a very very dangerous squad. I think this one goes 6. The Thunder look waaayyyyyy quicker to the ball and Durant will go off in at least two games. Bad draw dude. They pretty much played even with you guys in the paint last night and played with much more desire and that should not happen with the size advantage you have.

I'll stand by my original position and say the Lakers will win this one without too much trouble.

The biggest concern for Laker fans should be if the next game gets rowdy, like game 1 in Boston did. If that happens, the refs will start calling Artest's physical play more closely and then anything can happen. Take away Ron-Ron's physicalness (is that even a word?) and he's too slow to keep up with Durant.

bob

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and also tj you are right both teams played incred defense. Just a joy to see. Max effort.

bobheck

It WILL be called closer in okc and durant will go off. But man artest is doin a great job on durant

jeb,

I don't think LA drew a short straw. The West is very good from teams 1-8. The East is good from teams 1-4. There is a good chance LA would go 6 games in the first round with OKC, SA or Portland. LA has taken a step back this year and some teams have gotten better. The problem with the teams in the West is they will play great for a few weeks and look like contenders, then fall apart for a few weeks and look like pretenders.
I doubt Durant is going to score more then he did last night. Artest has done a great job on him. Durant looked flustered after he shot the two air-balls.
This was Bynum's second game back so he will only get better. Odom was not aggressive (4 points). I doubt that will happen for 2 games in a row.
Taking James Harden with the #3 pick last summer looks like a big mistake for OKC. If they picked Tyreke Evans or Stephen Curry, they could be championship contenders by next year. Harden is a big liability when he is on the court.

tj

Matchup wise I still think it's a bad one in the first round for your guys. But hot fires make strong steel. It will wind up being good for yall.

I think Durant will explode in okc. Refs will call tighter and artest will get in foul trouble. But maybe not Ron has done a HELL of a good job so far.

Lakers going down tonight,Durant gonna go off,too many problems for Dr Phil to fix.

cowens/oldschool wrote:Lakers going down tonight,Durant gonna go off,too many problems for Dr Phil to fix.

Lakers go down tonight (and I think there's a good chance of that as long as the Thunder keep their composure and don't get caught up in the enormity of the accomplishment) and there would be unprecedented panic in Laker nation. Because none of their fans can imagine a scenario where they could go back to OKC down 3-2 and win that 6th game in that building.

And, just as an afterthought, the Celtics play tonight too and might be willing to pass up some additional Miami sun.

Sam

cowens/oldschool wrote:Lakers going down tonight,Durant gonna go off,too many problems for Dr Phil to fix.

Sorry Cow, my money is still on the Lakers.

bob

steve3344 wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:Lakers going down tonight,Durant gonna go off,too many problems for Dr Phil to fix.

Lakers go down tonight (and I think there's a good chance of that as long as the Thunder keep their composure and don't get caught up in the enormity of the accomplishment) and there would be unprecedented panic in Laker nation. Because none of their fans can imagine a scenario where they could go back to OKC down 3-2 and win that 6th game in that building.

Steve,

I think LA wins tonight but if they do lose the series I am ok with it because they would have lost to a better team. They will re-group this summer.
Fortunately, there has been very little referee controversy and bad calls in the LA/OKC series.
The discrepancy is FT shooting in OKC had nothing to do with 'home calls' but was completely about OKC's aggressiveness.

tjmakz wrote:

steve3344 wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:Lakers going down tonight,Durant gonna go off,too many problems for Dr Phil to fix.

Lakers go down tonight (and I think there's a good chance of that as long as the Thunder keep their composure and don't get caught up in the enormity of the accomplishment) and there would be unprecedented panic in Laker nation. Because none of their fans can imagine a scenario where they could go back to OKC down 3-2 and win that 6th game in that building.

Steve,

I think LA wins tonight but if they do lose the series I am ok with it because they would have lost to a better team. They will re-group this summer.
Fortunately, there has been very little referee controversy and bad calls in the LA/OKC series.
The discrepancy is FT shooting in OKC had nothing to do with 'home calls' but was completely about OKC's aggressiveness.

tj - If LA loses this series I am ok with it too.

LOL

Game 5 was a complete domination by the Lakers. Offensively and defensively LA enforced their will on almost every posession.
Kobe's guarding Westbrook completely shut off OKC's dribble penetration. Kobe told Phil he wanted to guard Westbrook and Westbrook looked confused and rattled. Westbrook had 15 points and 8 turnovers. Most of his points were in early garbage time when LA was already up by 25-30.
In case you didn't get to or care to watch the game, Kobe completely dominated the game and only took 9 shots.
The OKC kids looked like kids in this game.
Sorry, I can't comment on Boston's win because I wasn't home to watch their game.

That was the best 48 min the Lakers have played all year.

If they play with that combination of passion, energy and inteligence they will be hard to beat.

Here's hoping for another Lakers-Celtics Finals.

Jeb, bobh, Sam, Michael and gyso (and anyone else who's interested)-

The game we always reference in our discussions with regard to the "good" Kobe is Game 6 vs Denver last year. He played in that mode tonight with very similar results- a blowout win with balanced scoring across the roster. He was getting everyone else involved off drive and dishes. Great D on Westbrook, too.

As we have frequently discussed, when he lets the game come to him it is really something to watch. I'm hoping that with him being a little banged-up we'll see this version of Kobe for the rest of the playoffs b/c they will be tough for someone to take out if he plays like this. Hopefully the silver lining of his injuries is that he will lean on the other guys more, b/c if he's taking 30 shots (a la game 3) they are much more vulnerable.

Congrats on your boys taking care of business. Cs-Cavs is going to be awesome.

babyskyhook wrote:Jeb, bobh, Sam, Michael and gyso (and anyone else who's interested)-

The game we always reference in our discussions with regard to the "good" Kobe is Game 6 vs Denver last year. He played in that mode tonight with very similar results- a blowout win with balanced scoring across the roster. He was getting everyone else involved off drive and dishes. Great D on Westbrook, too.

As we have frequently discussed, when he lets the game come to him it is really something to watch. I'm hoping that with him being a little banged-up we'll see this version of Kobe for the rest of the playoffs b/c they will be tough for someone to take out if he plays like this. Hopefully the silver lining of his injuries is that he will lean on the other guys more, b/c if he's taking 30 shots (a la game 3) they are much more vulnerable.

Congrats on your boys taking care of business. Cs-Cavs is going to be awesome.

bsh,

congrats on your guys doing what they had to do: not just win, but make a statement. They did that last night in spades.

Whoda thunk that a depleted, damaged Kobe would be the thing that makes the Lakers better?

I told a friend of mine who's a Laker fan, that Gasol is the Lakers' MVP. He went ballistic and told me I didn't know what I'm talking about and how many big shots has Gasol hit vs Kobe etc. Well, Gasol took 16 fga last night (more than any other player on either team) and scored 25 points, had 11 rebounds (4 of them offensive) and 5 assists with only 1 turnover. Bryant took 9 fga and had 4 turnovers and the Lakers won HUGE!! I can't wait to see this guy again and explain the facts of basketball life to him. LOL.


bob

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I heard it somewhere about Kobe and the miles he has on him vs Bird and the eventual breaking down of ones body.

Going into this season Kobe had 34,538 minutes during the regular season
Bird retired with 34,443..............nearly even.

Going into the playoffs this season Kobe has logged 6,888 minutes of playoff action.
Bird retired with 6,886...........almost spot on even.

Kobe has now played an additional 2,835 minutes this season plus 5 games now in the post season.

Bird retired at the age of 35. Kobe turns 32 later this year.

Kobe is already having many nagging injuries will he even come close to making it to 35 or will he have had enough.

beat

bob,

I know you were talking to bob but I will chime in about Gasol.
Gasol is solid but not the MVP of the team. He had a great game last night but it was like lay up and dunk drills for Gasol and Bynum. Kobe's D on Westbrook was a big reason why LA killed OKC. If you were saying Gasol was the MVP of last night's game, I wouldn't disagree. Either he or Kobe.
For the season, Gasol missed 20 games and Kobe carried LA despite his injuries. Without Kobe's 6 game winning shots, LA wouldn't have home court advantage throughout the Western Conf. playoffs.

beat wrote:I heard it somewhere about Kobe and the miles he has on him vs Bird and the eventual breaking down of ones body.

Going into this season Kobe had 34,538 minutes during the regular season
Bird retired with 34,443..............nearly even.

Going into the playoffs this season Kobe has logged 6,888 minutes of playoff action.
Bird retired with 6,886...........almost spot on even.

Kobe has now played an additional 2,835 minutes this season plus 5 games now in the post season.

Bird retired at the age of 35. Kobe turns 32 later this year.

Kobe is already having many nagging injuries will he even come close to making it to 35 or will he have had enough.

beat

beat,

Kobe has almost as many total NBA minutes on his body as KG.

Kobe said, last summer, that he feels like he could play at a high level for another 5 or 6 years. Considering how his body is not healing as quickly as it used to and it is now announced that his index finger on his shooting hand is arthritic, I wonder if he'd stand by that statement now.

bob

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beat,

Kobe has logged a tremendous amount of minutes in his career. I don't think Bird is the right person to compare Kobe to for the following reasons:
1) If you include all of Kobe's minutes, you should include Bird's college minutes too.
2) Bird was not in anywhere near the physical condition that Kobe is in. A better comparison/body type would be Jordan. Jordan still averaged 28.7 ppg at 35 years old.
Kobe will be 35 when his new contract is over. That will be it. I don't expect a tremendous drop off, but will probably see him scoring 20-22 ppg at the end of his career.

tjmakz wrote:bob,

I know you were talking to bob but I will chime in about Gasol.
Gasol is solid but not the MVP of the team. He had a great game last night but it was like lay up and dunk drills for Gasol and Bynum. Kobe's D on Westbrook was a big reason why LA killed OKC. If you were saying Gasol was the MVP of last night's game, I wouldn't disagree. Either he or Kobe.
For the season, Gasol missed 20 games and Kobe carried LA despite his injuries. Without Kobe's 6 game winning shots, LA wouldn't have home court advantage throughout the Western Conf. playoffs.

TJ,

A point I made to my friend was that when Kobe was in the game and Gasol was out, the Lakers NEEDED buzzerbeaters by Kobe to win. When Kobe was out the Lakers won and won with padding. That tells me that the Lakers played better with Gasol.

TJ

I only meant to compare minutes, don't read more into it than that. As for the college then lets use Kobes high school minutes too. College is at best 30-35 games.

Legs have only so many miles on them no matter how well one keeps themselves in shape. Father time sees to that.

Plus if I were to compare the minutes beyond the numbers, Bird played under the bucket a whole lot more than kobe does. And it is a whole lot more physical there too.

The mental part will play a key role. Bird just could not do it anymore and knew it. Kobe wins another title and the drive might not be great enough to overcome the aches and pains. Certainly I do not see him playing 5-6 more years.

beat

Are you talking about those 5 games that Kobe was out in February?
Yes, they played well without Kobe in those games but Odom played just as well as Gasol did. In those 5 games Odom averaged 14.6 ppg and 15 rpg. Gasol averaged 18.4 ppg and 12.4 rpg.
You can't give the team MVP to a guy that missed 18 games.
I agree with the announcers last night that he is the most talented big man in the league but Kobe is the engine for this team.