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Stop Me If You've Heard This Story Before
The Los Angeles Lakers came into yesterday's game 2 against the Oklahoma City Thunder down 1 game & looking to fight back after a humiliating loss. Unlike the last game, this was a low-scoring affair. The two teams combined for 209 points in game 1 & just 152 in game 2. The prevailing message after this game, a game in which we saw the Thunder rally from 7 points down with just 2 minutes left to win, is that the Lakers cannot beat Oklahoma City. It seems as though the Thunder are younger, deeper, more cohesive, & just plain better than the Lakers.
Remember game 2 between the Pacers & Heat? A low-scoring game, superstars not showing up down the stretch, & an unlikely player taking the final shot being the headline of the game? This Lakers/Thunder game 2 is eerily similar to that. During the Thunder comeback, there were no issues with their superstar, the MVP runner-up, Kevin Durant. Durant, who finished with 22 points, 7 rebounds, & 5 assists, hit a floater just outside the paint with just 18 seconds left that gave the Thunder a 1 point lead. Durant scored the final 9 points for this Thunder team, playing very much like an MVP. Kobe Bryant, on the other hand, struggled. He was guarded by Durant the whole night & had a very mediocre shooting night, going just 9-25 from the field for 20 points. It was the Lakers ineptitude to perform during the final several minutes of the 4th quarter that did them in, missing on their final 6 possessions. Kobe just wasn't very Kobe-like in this game. James Harden managed to block a Bryant jumper which led to the Thunder cutting the lead to just 1 & it was a missed 3 point shot from Kobe that led to Durant putting the Thunder up for good.
A raucous Oklahoma City crowd, perfectly sequenced in white & blue, sat in anticipation as the Lakers gathered for the final shot. The Lakers were only down by 1 & had the ball coming off a timeout. Metta World Peace had the ball standing out of bounds & gazed ahead of him & saw Thabo Sefolosha draped all over Kobe Bryant. Down by 1, Steve Blake received the pass from World Peace & fired a corner 3, which bounced off the rim & into the hands of Kevin Durant. Thunder win, up 2-0 in the series.
Kobe Bryant was visibly upset when he saw Blake had gotten the shot over him, but fact of the matter is this, he wasn't open. It was a bad playcall coming off the timeout & bad management of timeouts from the Lakers, considering they couldn't call one once they saw Kobe wasn't open. Blake finished the game 1-5 from behind the arc & should not have been the man to take that final shot. The fact that the Lakers settled for a low percentage shot like that, when they shot only 25% in the 4th quarter is just absurd. They handed the Thunder this game & probably the series. 6 turnovers in the final quarter is not the play of a championship team. The Thunder have blown out the Lakers & now stolen a game from them, they're in the Lakers psyche & this series is going to be over sooner, rather than later.
