Lakers Crush the Thunder

The Los Angeles Lakers sprinted out to a first quarter lead and never looked back in defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder, 101-85 at Staples Center. Kobe Bryant (26 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists) played H-O-R-S-E against the entire Thunder squad making impossible shot after impossible shot. He tossed up a high floater from way behind the backboard that hit nothing but net, then followed that up with a quite ordinary double-pump reverse lay-in, then beat the end of the first quarter clock with a left handed runner off an offensive rebound that banked in as the horn sounded. It was vintage Kobe as chants of “MVP” rang down from the rafters. Andrew Bynum (25 points, 9 rebounds) showed no ill effects from the sprained ankle he suffered against Chicago as he punished the smaller Thunder inside, bulling his way to the front of the rim.

Pau Gasol (15 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists), had a much quieter second game back, but still showed enough flashes of how formidable the Lakers can be with their full starting contingent in the line-up. Ron Artest (7 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists) continued his heady defensive play limiting Kevin Durant to 2-9 shooting in the first half. He also benefitted by getting uncontested shots on the perimeter whenever the Thunder chose to collapse on the bigs of the Lakers. And whatever the defense gave, the Lakers took. The Lakers outscored the Thunder, 60-44 with points in the paint and 25-10 in points off of turnovers.

Oklahoma never had a chance in this game, and even when the Lakers eased up, they still managed to increase their 20+ point lead. Shannon Brown did not disappoint the crowd by executing a thunderous slam off a high lob pass from Farmar. He followed that up with an aggressive drive to the bucket and another wind-up jam that had Kobe off the bench oohing and ahhing. The 4th quarter was strictly garbage time as even Sasha Vujacic got into the scoring column. Tacos were secure from the third quarter as OKC was unable to put any points onto the scoreboard. Durant (19 points on 8-20, 6 rebounds, 2 assists) led OKC in scoring and Russell Westbrook contributed (14 points on 5-16, 7 rebounds, 7 assists) but both were mainly kept in check as the Thunder never threatened.