To help distract from the pain, I’m gonna’ have to take off my purple & gold cloak and try to objective for the first part of this. Look, that was exactly the kind of game (at least for the first 46 minutes) that the Lakers needed and hoped for coming into the series & more so coming off the unleashed floodgates of Game 1. The pace, the defensive rotations, the team pick & roll defense, World Peace imposing his defensive will on the game, Westbrook being virtually non-existent. There were a lot of things that went the Lakers way in Game 2 for 46 minutes, and yet the Thunder still found a way to win. When OKC had things going for them in the series opener, it was a 29-point smack down. That should tell you all you need to know about this matchup.
The media’s narrative coming into Game 2 was how the Lakers appeared to be tuned in by the way everyone was communicating constantly after the Game 1 catastrophe—Bynum & Gasol having an extended talk on the bench long after the buzzer sounded, carrying on to everyone who had a significant role brainstorming right up to the Game 2 tip-off. And it seemed to have done wonders too. Bynum knew exactly when Westbrook was getting ready to pull-up after his penetrations and bothered him enough leading to a 5-17 shooting night; a far cry from his 10-15 performance the other night. World Peace played Durant about as well as I’ve seen anyone play him—making him for work for every catch, bodying him up the entire time. And in almost every extra pass attempt the Thunder made, the Lakers slid into position perfectly to either deflect the pass or outright steal them. While the Lakers didn’t shoot well themselves (they shot worse actually—38.5 % to OKC’s 42 %), it was their defense, as it has all season, that had them in perfect position to steal a game in OKC, and home court advantage.
But as it stands now, they choked in the last two minutes—allowed an extremely easy drive by Harden off a timeout, had a careless TO by Kobe that led to a Durant dunk, committed another careless TO between Blake & Kobe, allowed another Harden layup, took bad shots when they didn’t turn the ball over (Kobe—although much props for the way Perkins overplayed and bodied Bynum out of the paint during that stretch, which was huge since it seemed like the Lakers wanted to play off Bynum in the final two minutes. Their inability to do so led to the Kobe missed jumpers with the shot clock going down.), and was victimized by Durant’s brilliant floater that turned out to be the game winner. Those were eight points allowed in a two-minute stretch when during the entire game, up until that point, a three point lead felt like it was a three possession game.
(Laker Nation cloak back on) The remaining thread of hope for the Lakers? The Thunder did what they had to do, which was hold serve at home. It’ll be the Lakers turn in a couple of days, and they go into it knowing that they don’t really need to play a perfect game (as the Thunder did in Game 1) to win, they only need to play perfect defensively to have a chance. I thought that thread would be longer, apparently, that was just wishful thinking.
What else don’t they have going for them? History. Y’all have heard about the percentage of teams winning the series after winning Game 1 (Too depressed to Google, but it can’t be lower than 70%). Sessions. Remember how announce teams constantly reminded fans that Session’s ability to have someone create through penetrations from the point guard spot was a significant addition to the Lakers (something they have never had since Nick Van Exel)? Well, I don’t think I’ve really seen it the whole playoffs, much less against OKC. For some strange reason, the NBA also decided to have the Lakers play back-to-back games at home for games 3 & 4. If you’ve ever played competitive basketball, you understand how much tougher it is to play good defense with tired legs than it is to play offense.
Before this series, Laker fans haven’t truly been an underdog since being eliminated in five games by the Suns back in ’07 (In the ’08 Finals, they came in breezing through the West before being shell-shocked by Boston. Against Dallas, true Laker fans believed that they could come back from being 3-games down. Or maybe at least I really thought it was possible until the Mavs went ape shit from three in the second quarter of Game 4). This is unfamiliar territory, albeit something Laker fans knew was coming when they eventually faced OKC. There’s a very slight glint of hope that remains, however this series turns out, there’s sure to be a lot of drinking involved—win or lose.
Looking at the dimmest of bright sides, since 2008, the Lakers have been eliminated by the eventual champs (Boston in ’08 & Dallas last year). So if logic holds for the rest of the series & the Laker eliminator trend carries on, at least LeBron’s fingers will remain free of hardware for yet another year. That counts for something in Laker nation, right?
The media’s narrative coming into Game 2 was how the Lakers appeared to be tuned in by the way everyone was communicating constantly after the Game 1 catastrophe—Bynum & Gasol having an extended talk on the bench long after the buzzer sounded, carrying on to everyone who had a significant role brainstorming right up to the Game 2 tip-off. And it seemed to have done wonders too. Bynum knew exactly when Westbrook was getting ready to pull-up after his penetrations and bothered him enough leading to a 5-17 shooting night; a far cry from his 10-15 performance the other night. World Peace played Durant about as well as I’ve seen anyone play him—making him for work for every catch, bodying him up the entire time. And in almost every extra pass attempt the Thunder made, the Lakers slid into position perfectly to either deflect the pass or outright steal them. While the Lakers didn’t shoot well themselves (they shot worse actually—38.5 % to OKC’s 42 %), it was their defense, as it has all season, that had them in perfect position to steal a game in OKC, and home court advantage.
But as it stands now, they choked in the last two minutes—allowed an extremely easy drive by Harden off a timeout, had a careless TO by Kobe that led to a Durant dunk, committed another careless TO between Blake & Kobe, allowed another Harden layup, took bad shots when they didn’t turn the ball over (Kobe—although much props for the way Perkins overplayed and bodied Bynum out of the paint during that stretch, which was huge since it seemed like the Lakers wanted to play off Bynum in the final two minutes. Their inability to do so led to the Kobe missed jumpers with the shot clock going down.), and was victimized by Durant’s brilliant floater that turned out to be the game winner. Those were eight points allowed in a two-minute stretch when during the entire game, up until that point, a three point lead felt like it was a three possession game.
(Laker Nation cloak back on) The remaining thread of hope for the Lakers? The Thunder did what they had to do, which was hold serve at home. It’ll be the Lakers turn in a couple of days, and they go into it knowing that they don’t really need to play a perfect game (as the Thunder did in Game 1) to win, they only need to play perfect defensively to have a chance. I thought that thread would be longer, apparently, that was just wishful thinking.
What else don’t they have going for them? History. Y’all have heard about the percentage of teams winning the series after winning Game 1 (Too depressed to Google, but it can’t be lower than 70%). Sessions. Remember how announce teams constantly reminded fans that Session’s ability to have someone create through penetrations from the point guard spot was a significant addition to the Lakers (something they have never had since Nick Van Exel)? Well, I don’t think I’ve really seen it the whole playoffs, much less against OKC. For some strange reason, the NBA also decided to have the Lakers play back-to-back games at home for games 3 & 4. If you’ve ever played competitive basketball, you understand how much tougher it is to play good defense with tired legs than it is to play offense.
Before this series, Laker fans haven’t truly been an underdog since being eliminated in five games by the Suns back in ’07 (In the ’08 Finals, they came in breezing through the West before being shell-shocked by Boston. Against Dallas, true Laker fans believed that they could come back from being 3-games down. Or maybe at least I really thought it was possible until the Mavs went ape shit from three in the second quarter of Game 4). This is unfamiliar territory, albeit something Laker fans knew was coming when they eventually faced OKC. There’s a very slight glint of hope that remains, however this series turns out, there’s sure to be a lot of drinking involved—win or lose.
Looking at the dimmest of bright sides, since 2008, the Lakers have been eliminated by the eventual champs (Boston in ’08 & Dallas last year). So if logic holds for the rest of the series & the Laker eliminator trend carries on, at least LeBron’s fingers will remain free of hardware for yet another year. That counts for something in Laker nation, right?
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