The Lakerhead

Lakers Play Championship Defense

The Lakers convincingly defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 107-89, giving the Laker starters time to rest during the entire 4th quarter.

Was that a San Antonio Spurs game I just watched?  It had all the same patterns of the Spurs when Bruce Bowen and Tim Duncan were at their defensive prime:

1) Dead crowd on the road? Check.  The Oklahoma City fans were deader than dead.  When the visiting team goes up by 17 (Lakers throw in a 37-20 first quarter performance) to end the first quarter and don’t allow any miracle comebacks, there’s not much left to root for.

2) Deflated Home Players? Check.  Kevin Durant looked absolutely deflated at times on the floor.  The Lakers kept hedging him, doubling him, and doing anything to keep him out of the paint and a guy in his face.  Durant had a Sonics flashback, resorting to firing 3-pointers, going 0-6 from that range (he finished with 24 points, but he shot a mere 40%, 8-20, from the field).

He looked like he was having as much fun as players were when a 34-year old Bruce Bowen was on them.  In this case, it was Luke Walton plus a ridiculous amount of help (this over-help burned the Lakers a few times, as the Thunder slipped the cracks to get easy layups, but Durant never getting off was all worth it).

3) Bad Shooting Percentage By the Opponent? Bingo.  The Lakers forced the Thunder to 41.5% shooting from the field, while they shot 50%.

Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Trevor Ariza, Derek Fisher, and Josh Powell (who was pure money in the 3rd quarter) all played with smarts and great shooting percentage.

Kobe played mostly with smarts, but his percentage was dropped when he got into a mini-grudge match with Thabo Sefolosha (who plays some excellent defense).  He made up for it, though, with 5 sweet assists.

Can the Lakers build from this?  The answer is not absolutely, the answer is that they must.  Only champions can routinely walk into a visiting arena and shut everybody up.  The Lakers have 5 more road games to prove that they’re made of championship material.

I just love it when the lame “Beat L.A.” drum beat the road arenas play to have their fans chant this geographically envious slogan plays without a single soul uttering a word.