Thunder 77, Lakers 75: Things the Lakers threw away in the last two minutes: the ball (twice), the game, and their season. Now down 0-2 in a series that should be 1-1, Los Angeles has failed to capitalize in a game they really needed to win. I’m not saying the Lakers are incapable of coming back from an 0-2 deficit—you know what they say: a series doesn’t begin until the road team wins—but I’m saying the Lakers can’t advance to the Conference Finals if they’re unable to capitalize on Oklahoma City’s “jump-shooting team” nights. Yesterday evening the Thunder scored just 77 points. They shot 42% from the floor, turned the ball over 13 times (to just 15 assists), and got dominated in the paint. Russell Westbrook, who destroyed the Lakers in game one, went 5-17. The pace of the game was that of a snail, and although the Lakers shot even worse than the Thunder did (38.5%), they succeeded in establishing their style of basketball. As evidenced by game one, the Lakers won’t be able to impose their slow-it-down tempo night in and night out. With yesterday’s collapse they’ve failed to win a game in which they were actually able to do so, and they suddenly face a daunting task—to win four of the next five games. I’m pretty confident that it’s not gonna happen.
I was surprised to see the Lakers, who normally execute with intelligence and precision late in close games, make consecutive passes that didn’t really make any sense. Kobe’s pass was simply too risky to be made in that situation. The angle forced him to try to lob it over the long arms of Kevin Durant as Pau Gasol worked to hold his position between Serge Ibaka and a cheating Russell Westbrook. I’m sure the play had the ball going to Gasol, but I think Kobe would’ve been wise to fake the pass to Gasol before swinging it to an unguarded Andrew Bynum, or even Steve Blake in the corner. There wasn’t enough space to make the pass to Pau in that situation. As for Blake’s pass, that looked like a bit of a “hot potato” play. I mean, he dribbled across half court, maneuvered towards Kobe, and immediately threw a five-foot pass without surveying the situation. Blake should’ve gone away from Kobe, forcing Westbrook to follow, and thrown the bounce pass. He appeared to have little interest in handling the ball, though, and a risky pass was the result of his haste.
James Harden scored just 13 points on 3-8, but he came up huge during those final two minutes. He got the ball to the front of the rim, where he finished on two critical occasions. On the defensive end, he blocked Kobe’s turn-around jumper to set up his own layup, and he also made a great closeout on Bryant’s missed three. Basically, Harden set the table for Durant’s game-winning bucket.
On the go-ahead possession, Durant and the Thunder were wise to utilize the same pick and roll the Lakers have struggled to stop throughout the series. The slow-footed Andrew Bynum was unable to block Durant’s path to the basket, and Durant was tall enough to finish over Pau Gasol. Tough shot, but the defense could’ve been better. Ron Artest probably should’ve gone under the pick seeing as the action was initiated about five feet beyond the three-point arc.
The Thunder did catch a huge break on the final Laker possession. Russell Westbrook made a horrible decision as he completely turned his head and body away from his man, Steve Blake, who was able to take three steps to his left for a wide-open corner three. Blake recently netted a similar shot to ice a Laker victory over the Nuggets, and OKC is very fortunate that this thing didn’t end in disaster.
Hilarious moment in irony:
The Lakers would’ve been better off had Artest remained on suspension for this one, as he went 2-10 with a pair of turnovers. I suppose the basketball gods felt that seven games weren’t enough.
