The Lakers have been off since Monday, a bad loss at the hands of the Pacers to close their three game road trip. The Lakers were looking to win their 4th game in a row, but got smacked around early and never really recovered against the team from the Hoosier state. Tonight, then, the team will look to get back on track, but against a much more challenging foe and one of the hotter teams in the league.
The Thunder come in to this game winners of seven of their last eight contests. The lone loss was against the Warriors last night, a game that saw the Thunder dominate early, but succumb to a hot shooting Dubs team in the 2nd half. Of course it helped that Kevin Durant didn’t play in that half, sitting after spraining his right ankle. To that point Durant had scored 30 points in only 18(!) of action, torching every defender the Warriors threw his way. After Durant went down, Russell Westbrook took up the slack, but it was not enough against a Warriors team with a ton of firepower and a defense that knows how to turn up the heat and stifle opponents.
Durant will sit out tonight’s game as well and that is a major break for the Lakers, though it remains to be seen how much. Durant’s insane scoring ability and versatility from the wing will, of course, be missed. But the fact is the Thunder have enough talent left in their lineup to give the Lakers fits on both sides of the ball and really force them into difficult positions.
It begins with Westbrook who is, essentially, playing like one of the best players in the league. His per-36 numbers are off the charts as he’s scoring, assisting, and rebounding like a madman. His intensity remains one of his best assets, but he is channeling it even better than he has in past years, finally seeming to reach the point where aggression and thinking out the game and ability intersect. Yes, he’ll still have some of those head scratching possessions where he dribbles the air out of the ball looking for a sliver of space to attack, but more often than not he is making excellent reads that, when combined with his superior athleticism, make him nearly impossible to stop.
Beyond Russ is a slew of quality players — especially Serge Ibaka, a player who has evolved into a threat from behind the arc while still blocking shots with tremendous effectiveness — who all seem to fit in properly to make this team competitive. Reggie Jackson is a starting quality guard coming off the bench who can also play next to Russ to form an explosive backcourt. Steven Adams can bang bodies with most big men in the league and has just enough ability as a scorer to make defenses pay when the try to treat him as a non-threat. Add in Jeremy Lamb, Perry Jones III, Andre Roberson, Nick Collison, and Anthony Morrow and this team really is stacked.
For the Lakers to compete, then, they will need to get extraordinary performances from multiple players, including Kobe Bryant. Kobe is likely to run into real issues with Roberson, a long and athletic defender who can play with him on the wing and in the post. Kobe will need to find ways to hit contested jumpers and then use the threat of that shot to get into the teeth of the defense where he can draw extra attention to create shots for others. Nick Young will also need to come ready to score and hit shots, as will Jeremy Lin. If these two can create buckets, it will open the floor for Jordan Hill and Carlos Boozer to score against rotating defenders.
Even if all this goes their way, the Lakers are still very much an underdog. The Thunder, even without Durant, are just a better team. They are, though, on the 2nd night of a back to back and playing on the road. Maybe this will be enough for the Lakers to steal a game.
Where you can watch: 7:30pm start time on TWC Sportsnet and ESPN. Also listen on ESPN Radio 710AM.
Chearn says
What has gotten in to Price?
Portland and San Antonio game is bananas. That Lilliard dunk was nasty.
PurpleBlood says
Chearn,
hope he keeps it up, at least for this game anyway
Reggie Hammond says
Boozer gotta be the worst defender in the league he doesn’t even try so frustrating when he fouls a dude and just watches them get the lay up for an and 1…Kobe looks like he’s lost confidence in his shot…the other guys are playing pretty good tho
Karen says
Young gets kicked out on bad officiating
Tim says
The game seems to have turned on the Nick Young ejection.
Lil pau says
Wow– quiet here for a good game.
Lil pau says
Kobe with the epic airball. Serious meltdown happening now.
Tim says
Kobe misses the game winner, Lakers fall to the Thunder by one point. Kobe struggled tonight, finished 9-8-8. 3-15 from the field.
hop says
Wow. B. Scott again that was bad coaching down the stretch. Kobe was ice cold, 3-15. Still ran a play to Kobe.
Rob Westbrook says
Close one! Loved seeing the team game tonight. Kobe is KILLING the Lakers, though. I’ve been one of his biggest fans over the last 15 years. He’s the worst defender on the team now, and his offense is more inefficient than ever. The number of contested long twos he takes is ridiculous. If he shot less frequently, maybe he could help the team with his shot creation and passing, but he just doesn’t provide enough anymore to warrant his playing time when he’s such a defensive liability. In years past, if Kobe missed a few games and the Lakers won in his absence, people would say that the team was better without him. Back then, we’d always say those people were silly. Now, I actually think the team would be better with him playing very few minutes or just riding the bench. Probably worse on offense, but better defensively. Maybe if Byron benched Kobe, Kobe would get so mad about not getting into the game that he would just retire and we could get his salary off the books before the trade deadline
Kevin T says
I swear it feels like Kobe is being paid to deliberately lose games this year.
Kevin T says
The guy that made a whole bunch of winning shots in prior years can’t buy one this year and everyone else in the league is making them in bunches.
Ko says
3 for 15 and for the 10 time this year bricked the last shot. Has not made one this year. Shooting 25% last 2 minutes of games. Yet Scott keeps calling the same play.
What do they call it when you keep doing the same thing over and over with the same results?
Insanity?
Aaron says
What do they call it when you keep doing the same thing over and over with the same results?
—————————————————-
Tanking 😉
Oldtimer says
The Lakers this year live with Kobe and die with Kobe same result with that “mellow” in NY. Why not die with Ronnie Price, JLin or Ellington so that we have a new target in the blog!
Lakers leading by 9 with greatest opportunity of W without KD, still lose. Perhaps, they have all one thing in mind, to tank is the only way to improve. 3 Cheers for Aaron. lol!
Reggie Hammond says
I love me some swaggy P and I’m being dead serious here…I think at this point in there careers young is better than Kobe…glad he got those 4 years
Anonymous says
I’ve seen many games where Kobe looks tired for the first half or “facilitates” but then turns it up in the fourth quarter.
Tonight he didn’t seem to have another gear to go to. Just simply out of juice.
Pregame ceremony honored Kobe’s achievement passing MJ.
I had the distinct feeling he felt just a little extra pressure or expectation due to this being his first home game after reaching this milestone and the accompanying ceremony.
Maybe now, finally, he’ll take a little pressure off himself and let someone else take the last shot.
Once he allows his teammates to shine or at least gives them the chance to sink or swim, he’ll become a better player instantly and the team will benefit. It could happen overnight.
Postgame, Byron was asked why Kobe was chosen to take the last shot.
His answer: 32000 points.
Unfortunately that logic is flawed.
If this was sound strategy, why not ask Kareem to suit up and toss in the game-winnng sky hook.
J C says
Kareem sky hook logic mine.
rr says
Kobe can still play, but he needs to play a different role–28-32 MPG, playing more off the ball, playing more 3, playing more in the mid-post, taking fewer 3s. Like I said about a month ago, Kobe is trying to play like he is 26, not 36, and Byron is enabling him. And, again: Kobe and Byron were very known quantities when the FO gave them the deals that they did.
J C says
Rr
Kobe trying to play like he’s 26.
True – in minutes and FGA.
But sadly he can’t even beat anyone off the dribble anymore, or get to the cup.
I agree about Byron as enabler.
I’m just hoping something triggers a change.
It has to happen eventually.
The sooner Kobe accepts his fate and embraces the next phase of his career, the sooner we go back to bring a team.
tankyou says
rr, I’ve been saying the same thing, but I think 28-32mpg is far too generous. Kobe is just straight up physically struggling, without actually sitting out complete games, he is going to have to play about 20mpg to have a chance to salvage his body enough to be efficient.
Clearly Byron Scott isn’t going to worry about efficiency IF its Kobe. This last quarter take most of the shots crap, has led to one win due to Kobe playing well in the 4th. It has led to a ton of losses in close games, and some games where we were lucky to still win (like the Spurs game).
Byron Scott see Kobe as the Lakers future still (likely his only chance at a future in LA as well). Whereas Kobe is the past, part of the glorious past, but not this teams future in anyway. Guys with some talent like Lin are marginalized and now get 20mpg, and older guys like Price/Boozer/Kobe are getting more minutes. Clarkson doesn’t play. Its almost as if Byron Scott tries to play the oldest players the most minutes whenever possible, the younger you are the less you play. Kobe isn’t going to magically turn back the clock, he’s going to be playing tired and with less power. THIS is Kobe playing tired after NOT really practicing and having 3 days off! This Byron Scott “I have 32k reasons why Kobe shoots the last shots” sure, that’s smart basketball, let Kobe try and get his 4th quarter shooting percentage closer to 20% or less. Man we seriously could have won last night.
Ko says
Good thing BScott is not. Baseball manager.
“so Mr. scott it was bottom of ninth, base loaded and your down my one run. Why did you pinch hit Henry Aaron.”
740 home runs you idiot!
Yea but his 71 years old?
“So, 740 home runs! that’s all I need to say!
Keep drinking the Kobe Koolaid Byron.
tankyou says
Going to give Lin credit, he was playing great in the 4th and controlling the offense when Kobe was out. A good mix of attacking and scoring and collapsing the defense for some nice kick-out passes for open 3’s to Ellington. It’s nice to have Ellington out there a true floor spacer guy that can shoot well as a spot up shooter. The ball certainly seemed to find a lot more guys last night and that helped it remain close. It didn’t turn into the Kobe/Young shooting show–which clearly doesn’t work very often.
I bet Ellington and Lin play well next year for some other team. I’m seriously concerned that Kobe is physically spent, almost no one else on our team even gets 30mpg. Just play Ellington 23mpg and Kobe 25mpg, maybe that would help, it almost definitely would help us be a better team. We are a worse team with Kobe playing more than 30mpg without a doubt–worse offensively and defensively. Its also nice to see the team play like a team, rather than the stand around and watch Young/Kobe jack up contested jump shots offense–er I mean “princeton”.
Tankyou says
Wish this was a true rebuilding year. Imagine this team without Kobe playing. Lin gets to truly showcase himself at point and perhaps we resign him to a small contract, same with Wayne Ellington. Clarkson would actually get playing time at the 2 guard and a bit at the PG position. I honestly think Lin/Clarkson/Ellington would be a much better rotation, and the offense would be spread out.
How about Kobe acts the decoy at the end of the 4th quarter for a change, it would blow the other teams mind if he doesn’t shoot nearly every shot the last 5 mins of the game. Hero ball is just garbage, the team actually was running and fun to watch for awhile there in the 4th quarter. Even Ronnie Price played well, and I’m bummed we are likely going to lose Ellington/Lin. I can’t imagine Lin/Ellington wanting to sign with LA again–if they can’t even get playing time when LA is tanking, and no matter how well they play–they can’t get many minutes.
I honestly think Ellington is a better player most games this season than Kobe, both defensively and offensively. This 30 shots to score 30 points stuff doesn’t impress me at all.
BigCitySid says
A very sad commentary on Kobe’s shooting wows. This video was posted on ESPN by Tom Haberstroh BEFORE last night’s terrible shooting night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ2f_B0nFeM
tankyou says
Good concise video BigCitySid, thanks for the link. Its pretty crazy that he’s shooting more (contested 2’s) than entire teams, and clearly he isn’t shooting the so called “worst shot in basketball” even at the league average.
PurpleBlood says
re KB:
IMO it adds up to the following right now:
a) minutes played so far in the season, starting to catch up
b) after more than 20 years (high school, pros…most likely as far back as boyhood) of working diligently, braving the odds against him, scratching, clawing & NEVER giving up, his having reached such a gigantic milestone will invariably, & quite naturally, bring about a brief sub-conscious let-down. I mean one finally gets what one has been striving for, year in and year out, and It´s only natural that it should be so
___
Bummer that we let one get away get away last night.
rr says
Lin, Young, and Ellington are known quantities as well, so people thinking that giving them more PT would make any real difference are dead wrong. That is just another way of saying, “I don’t like Kobe Bryant.” This is fun time for media guys like Haberstroh, and for guys like Sid, whose interest in the Lakers begins and ends with Kobe and how much he shoots and crafting a narrative around that. But there is a bigger picture here, and it starts with the FO. If Haberstroh wants to create a more intelligent public conversation about the Lakers, he should make a video about the FO, or about the team’s recent drafting and trading patterns. But of course he doesn’t.
Personally, from a purely subjective POV, I would prefer that Kobe had retired/left and the Lakers were just another bad team. The FO has created a team that is sort of a crippled Frankenstein’s Monster, a collection of mismatched parts, stumbling blindly through the forest in the dark.
BlizzardOfOz says
The pathetic thing about Haberstroh is that he’s a Lebron/Heat fanboy posing as an analyst. His only interest in Kobe is to tear him down in hopes of boosting spreadsheet champ Lebron.
Kobe shot dismally last night, but all things considered he did not play terribly. He didn’t force anything, and was consistently getting other guys wide open shots, and finding guys right at the rim with passes.
J C says
I think to be a Laker fan or a Kobe fan is to understand that he’s always been a living contradiction.
Inspiring cheers of exultation one moment and jeers of disgust the next, sometimes displayed by the same fan in the same breath.
I know I’m guilty of feeling both emotions watching him.
The comment by Haberstroh is a clinical reference to a questionable statistic IMO (all other shots are ‘unguarded?’) but it’s far from the only critical observervation of the current state of Kobe affairs.
Yet Kobe’s attraction to the masses is still intact. The crowd still cheers wildly when he’s introduced pre-game, and sits in stunned silence when he misses the last shot of the game and shuffles out of the arena in a daze en masse.
My son remarked how missing that shot by a few inches instantly and dramatically affected the moods of thousands of total strangers.
The mystery of being a sports fan.
Kevin T says
Kobe looked really tired last night, now that he has passed M.J. in the scoring column and achieved one of his goals I believe he should take a few games off and rest , when he comes back try to play no more than 30 minutes and try to be a 20/7/7 guy with more efficiency rather than a 25/5/5 guy with horrible percentages. Win or lose all the negative b.s. articles should stop at that point and maybe the team wins more games.
BigCitySid says
-@ rr, point of clarification: I lay the blame of the Lakers present problem completely at the feet of the front office. Always have, always will. “The Contract” while not their only mistake, remains the biggest. For the record my issue is with the % of the salary cap Kobe utilizes as opposed to the amount since the Lakers don’t want to pay luxury taxes, it just doesn’t leave enough $$ to field competitive talent. And both the FO & Kobe knew that. But this was the decision they made, figuring that people would rather see a shadow of Kobe and a struggling Laker team rather than non Kobe team who may or may not have been better than this year’s product.
Pertaining to Kobe, too many here and elsewhere only want to see the Dr Jekyll side and ignore his Mr Hyde aspects. To praise him for passing MJ for 3rd place w/o mentioning it took an additional five seasons plus leading the league in missed fga’s is, at the very least, a misrepresentation. When I pointed out some of Kobe’s “less than glorious stats” years ago (such as him taking more fga per game than Gasol & Bynum combined even though they were both shooting over .500) it was basically me against the world…now, not so much.
I want what’s best for my Lakers…Kobe or no Kobe. Better Lakers have come and gone, and the Lakers have returned to glory. The nightmare this team is currently in was expected to end July 2016. However I’m starting to hear it’s possible it may continue beyond that. Which is why I point out out “Kobe-isms”, such as “I eat first”. Because if he’s not willing to change, I’m not interested in him staying. Some here refer to Kobe as “the aging lion”. Anyone familiar w/ nature knows what happens to aging lions when they can no longer perform.
-@BlizzardofOz, every team/player has their fan base. I read pro/Kobe & anti/Kobe, pro/Laker & anti/Laker. As I pointed out, that piece was written before last night’s game. Just because a guy doesn’t share your view point doesn’t mean the piece isn’t factual. I found it informative. Did you? Or were you already aware of the article’s finding?
hop says
In 26 games played so far this year Kobe has shot over 50% just twice, but he still takes over 22 shots a game. and plays over 35mpg. That’s on Bryon Scott.
Baylor Fan says
Looking at the 4th quarter, Lin looked just like the Lin the Lakers expected to get. He aggressively ran the offense, attacked the rim, and hit teammates who found holes in the defense. The uptempo offense was working well and OKC looked tired. I definitely thought Kobe should have stayed glued to the bench. The last play did not look so bad, Kobe worked to a normally good place on the floor and ended up with an uncontested shot. His defender stayed glued to the floor and did not try for a block. Kobe just missed it. Kobe would not have worked as a decoy since OKC chose to cover him with a single player. Nick had already taken himself out of the game so the Lakers did not have another player on the court with a strong ability to create a shot. Overall, the Lakers made a game out of one they could have won and did not look terrible in the process.
Concrete Installation says
I hope these guys get everyone healthy and turn it around. They should be in the final 4 Western Conference teams with Dallas, San Antonio, and Golden State. Yes I left Houston out. And Memphis. Dang the Western Conference is good.
BigCitySid says
Most recent reason Lakers won’t keep their top 5 protected 1st round draft pick:
as of 12/21, of the 18 teams with records of .500 or less, in the last 10 games, only the Thunder ( 8-2) & the Celtics (6-4) have posted better records than the Lakers 5-5.
With about a 1/3 of the season in the books, Lakers are 8th from the bottom at 8-18. As hard as it is to believe, in their last 10 games, the Lakers are actually having more success than 1/2 the league.
rr says
Sid,
You have the same problem that the many anti-KB people have when it comes to Kobe, which is that you have created a narrative in which you are this calm, objective truth-teller about Kobe, whereas his defenders are all driven by emotion. The reality is that you are just as emotional about him as his most dedicated fans are, as your endless stream of posts and links about him indicate, and your analysis is just as shoddy and biased. As one example of many that I could provide, you linked to the HA piece about him twice. That piece did not assign any responsibility to the FO at all, and yet you held it up–twice–as something that everybody should read.
Your comment about Kobe passing Jordan is another example. The point of noting the milestone was to note Kobe’s longevity, productivity, and determination. But you take it and make it into yet another way to put him down.
You are simply the other side of the fanboy coin.
rr says
Sid,
You have the same problem that the many anti-KB people have when it comes to Kobe, which is that you have created a narrative in which you are this calm, objective truth-teller about Kobe, whereas his defenders are all driven by emotion. The reality is that you are just as emotional about him as his most dedicated fans are, as your endless stream of posts and links about him indicate, and your analysis is just as shoddy and biased. As one example of many that I could provide, you linked to the HA piece about him twice. That piece did not assign any responsibility to the FO at all, and yet you held it up–twice–as something that everybody should read.
Your comment about Kobe moving by Jordan is another example. The point of noting the milestone was to note Kobe’s longevity, productivity, and determination. But you take it and make it into yet another way to put him down.
You are simply the other side of the fanboy coin.
BlizzardOfOz says
@BigCitySid,
I didn’t read it, and don’t read ESPN writers on anything connected to the Lakers. As I wrote recently, those articles are the definition of concern trolling. If you can extract some info from them, then more power to you, but I see a bunch of writers who have a pre-conceived, groupthink-reinforced narrative, and who cherry-pick facts and stats to fit their narrative. Those people were writing the exact same things about Kobe in 2005-07, then had to lay low for a while, and now are back on their favorite hobby-horse. Personally, I don’t find that kind of writing informative.
I am happy to read and consider posts on FB&G that criticize Kobe, but it is sad to see people enthusiastically adopting ESPN’s narrative, whose main raison d’etre is their collective freakout over Kobe’s ascent on the all-time scoring list. I would hope that people here should at least read David Friedman as a reasoned counterpoint to the petty, adenda-driven foolishness over there.