| 24 April 2010
(Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
Oklahoma City Thunder 110, Los Angeles Lakers 89
If I had to guess, I would think that it is nights like Game 5 of the Lakers-Thunder series is the reason Zach Harper spends the regular season blogging about the Sacramento Kings and the Toronto Raptors. As a writer, it’s hard to be taken seriously if you can’t display some sort of objectivity, and when you’ve been emotionally invested in one team for so long, it becomes hard to write about that team without biases flowing from your finger tips, and it becomes harder when that team you love so much is playing terribly.
But the terrible play probably isn’t what gets to Zach, it’s the Timberwolves, he’s used to that – but perhaps it becomes a lack of effort. A lack of effort from the front office. A lack of effort from the coaching staff. A lack of effort from the collective fan base. Or in the Lakers’ case in Game 5, a lack of effort from the players.
For the duration of this season, this Lakers team has been shameful to watch when teams jumped out on them early. They don’t have that notional counter-punch that so many of the league’s better teams have. The Lakers tend to crumble when teams attack them without fear, when they’re relentless attacking the basket, when they scramble for all of the loose balls and fight for all of the rebounds. It doesn’t happen every night, but when it does, the Lakers play like a small hill that was once a mighty mountain that has been slowly eroded away by the elements.
During Game 4, the Oklahoma City Thunder became the conjectural elements to bring this Lakers Mountain down to something they were essentially able to walk on by the beginning of the fourth quarter. You don’t really need numbers to know how the Thunder won this game. They hit the Lakers in the mouth early, and hit them repeatedly until they were out of the game. The Thunder have taken on the Golden State Warriors 2006 “We Believe” mentality on their home floor and put on a show for the livest fans in all of basketball right now.
The Thunder played with the confidence of a team that has been playing together for half a decade even though it’s a team that is still being built – and they took it to the Los Angeles Lakers, the defending World Champions. At this moment in time, I know why Zach doesn’t write about the Timberwolves: it hurts when you watch them get destroyed, but it hurts even more when you have to relive it with your own words. The Lakers got routed tonight. It was frustrating, infuriating and discouraging. All of the credit in the world goes to the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight.
Why The Thunder Won This Game
To beat the Lakers, you have to be confident. During the fourth quarter, Dan Shulman talked about how the Thunder weren’t down because they drew the Lakers in the first round as a lot of teams would have been, and it’s really shown this series. For the most part, the Thunder have outplayed the Lakers because they’ve been attacking them on their own terms, getting to all of the loose balls and play defense. That’s what they did in the first three games, that’s what they did tonight. That’s what they’ll continue to do for the remainder of the series.
Why The Lakers Lost This Game
The Lakers displayed little to no effort. They fouled a lot. They played like a young, inexperienced eight seed team that had to play against the defending NBA Champions. That’s why they lost.
Looking Ahead To Game Five
Traditionally, role players don’t play as well on the road as they do at home. In the first two games, guys like James Harden and Jeff Green were almost non-factors. In the two games in Oklahoma City, they’ve played with energy, enthusiasm and like they belonged on the court with the Lakers. With the way the Thunder ran the Lakers off the floor, those guys are going to go into Los Angeles with a lot more confidence than they did in the first two games. However, the Lakers generally wake up after games like they had tonight, so watching those two trends will create an interesting dynamic to pay attention to in the series’ fifth game.
Prediction: The Lakers hold serve at home
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