Man, that was a brutal to watch. I actually thought they Lakers were doing alright in the first quarter, and that they still had a shot after the first half. They were able to get the ball inside the paint and get their frontcourt going. Then, OKC turned their defense up a notch and Westbrook and Harden just took over. Sessions needs to wake up and start contributing because Blake is not going to be enough by himself. The Lakers may end up having to go real big at some point with Kobe at PG since neither Blake nor Sessions are justifying any PT, particularly when OKC has all of their big 3 in at the same time.

DoctorHelvetica

United States15034 Posts

May 15 2012 06:50 GMT

#1816

The lack of depth for the Lakers was HUGE in that game. Consider this:

Points from LAL bench : 26 (-26)
Points from LAL starting five: 64 (-3)

Points from OKC bench: 52
Points from OKC starting five: 67

I might be off by a couple numbers here but that is just shameful. Depth will win OKC this series because no matter how much momentum our starting 5 get against them (imo the lakers have the advantage here because of size and MWP can shut down Durant and score over him) as the game wears on our bench bleeds our net scoring out so much that Oklahoma will eventually break away.

We'll probably win a game or two when Westbrook turns into Westbrick and doesn't get his jump shot streaks. I expect OKC to take this 4-1 and hopefully the LA front office does the right thing and instead of dumping Bynum/Gasol for Howard or something stupid, we sign a PG who can play defense and trade for some depth in our bench.

Putting Kobe on Westbrook from the start is gonna help us a bit. Sessions is worthless on defense and there's a chance that if OKC don't get the psychological momentum from Westbrook/Durant scoring early that the bench might not play as well.

[X]Ken_D

United States4653 Posts

May 15 2012 06:55 GMT

#1817

On May 15 2012 07:40 Telcontar wrote:
The elbow was certainly there, but it didn't make enough contact for Lebron to react like that. It was more like a slight push with it than a thrust. Let's face it. He's a habitual flopper. He has flopped, he is flopping, and will continue to flop. That's just Lebron.

There doesn't need to be much contact in the throat area for someone to react like that. Try it.

XaI)CyRiC

United States4471 Posts

May 15 2012 06:57 GMT

#1818

Brown would never do it, but I think it'd be worth trying a lineup of Kobe, Ebanks, MWP in together whenever Westbrook, Harden, and Durant are in at the same time. They could then either put in two bigs if the Thunder go with two bigs, or a big and a PG if the Thunder go with Fisher/Cook and a big.

igotmyown

United States4291 Posts

May 15 2012 07:37 GMT

#1819

There's no way in hell Kobe can keep up with Westbrook, unless he plays the Rondo defense. Westbrook can blow by good nba point guards. Kobe doesn't have the first step to go straight to the basket anymore. Kobe on Harden, that might be useful.

It's silly to compare bench points when most of the production is Harden, who played 24 minutes to Westbrook's 27 and Durant's 29. He's not technically a starter, but he's one of their guys when the game matters.

If Westbrook shot 5 for 15 instead of 10 for 15, the Lakers only lose by 19, ignoring garbage time. If I were the Lakers, I wouldn't just hope things even out, I would be desperately worrying about not getting swept like last year.

DoctorHelvetica

United States15034 Posts

May 15 2012 07:42 GMT

#1820

On May 15 2012 16:37 igotmyown wrote:
There's no way in hell Kobe can keep up with Westbrook, unless he plays the Rondo defense. Westbrook can blow by good nba point guards. Kobe doesn't have the first step to go straight to the basket anymore. Kobe on Harden, that might be useful.

It's silly to compare bench points when most of the production is Harden, who played 24 minutes to Westbrook's 27 and Durant's 29. He's not technically a starter, but he's one of their guys when the game matters.

If Westbrook shot 5 for 15 instead of 10 for 15, the Lakers only lose by 19, ignoring garbage time. If I were the Lakers, I wouldn't just hope things even out, I would be desperately worrying about not getting swept like last year.

It matters because we don't have that 6th guy. Odom is gone and our substitutions are almost always a huge loss for us. Of course there's more to it than that but the bench really needs to be more productive if we're ever gonna have a chance of taking this series. I'd hope we trade out for a good PG and some depth, I don't want a big trade for one superstar when our bench still can't play.

If Westbrook shoots 5 for 15 it affects the morale of the Lakers, it affects their defensive assignments, it affects OKC's momentum, it would change a lot more than just how many points they scored.