Kevin Durant?s game-winner beats the Lakers in Game 4 (VIDEO) (Ball Don't Lie) ...more ?
The Okahoma City Thunder are a young team, and many fans and observers believe they still need to prove their mettle in close, tense playoff games. Saturday night's Game 4 against the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center was one of those games, with the Lakers jumping out to a quick double-digit lead and holding a nine-point advantage heading into the final quarter. By all possible measures, OKC proved themselves, taking the game 103-100 and out-executing the home Lakers down the stretch.
The finishing blow was Kevin Durant's three-pointer over Metta World Peace with 13 seconds remaining. Durant's been no stranger to game-winners in these playoffs ? this was his third, including this memorable one against Dallas on the postseason's first night ? but this one felt a little more special. The context mattered: the Thunder were in danger of seeing the series tied at 2-2, and the shot was the perfect cap to their comeback. More than anything, though, it was impressive just how calm Durant looked throughout the possession. He knew what he wanted to do, got the chance, and executed perfectly. At no point did he seem to lose control of the moment.
It was the play of a veteran superstar, not a young kid still finding his way to the top of the league. The Thunder still have much to prove as they try to win a championship, but there's now no question that they're a mature bunch.
(Video via EOB )
Do the Los Angeles Lakers have a chance in Friday?s Game 3? (Ball Don't Lie) ...more ?
The Oklahoma City Thunder had the best record in the tough Western Conference for most of the season, and they've yet to lose in six postseason games. The Los Angeles Lakers, meanwhile, struggled through an up and down regular season, and the team has lost nine of its last 13 playoff games, dating back the group's second-round sweep at the hands of the champion Dallas Mavericks last year. An admittedly watered-down version of those Mavs, you'll recall, was swept out of the playoffs by the Thunder just two weeks ago.
With this unfortunate bit of history in place, and with a desperate Game 3 set to tip off on Friday night, is it possible the Lakers have any chance ? both not only in this series, but in Game 3? That's going to be a tough one, Los Angeles.
We're well aware that the team was just over two minutes away from stealing the home-court advantage in this series on Wednesday night. Game 2's final-minute meltdown shouldn't take away from the fact that for 46 minutes the Lakers hedged off of Oklahoma City's screens expertly, covered ground in transition, forced nine more turnovers than they were able to in Game 1, while clogging the middle on drives from Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Kevin Durant. The defensive template, clearly, is in place.
Andrew Bynum after 9-0 Thunder run beats Lakers: ?We?re better than Santa Claus? (Ball Don't Lie) ...more ?
After an Andrew Bynum bucket with 2:08 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers looked to be sitting pretty. They held a seven-point lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder thanks to nearly 46 minutes of gritty ground-and-pound that made the postseason's best offense ? yes, the Thunder entered Wednesday night averaging more points per 100 playoff possessions than even the San Antonio Spurs ? look disjointed and stale.
OKC had hit just 39.7 percent of its shots en route to 68 measly points two nights after scoring 119 in Game 1 , and didn't appear to be anywhere near getting well against a Laker team that had held it to just 20 second-half points. Unfortunately for the Lakers, appearances can be deceiving.
Whether you'd like to laud Kevin Durant for the win, damn Kobe Bryant for the loss, do neither or choose both, the fact remains that Oklahoma City went on a 9-0 run in the final 128 seconds to score a 77-75 Game 2 win , take a 2-0 lead in their Western Conference semifinal series and deliver a serious haymaker to L.A.'s spirits as it heads home for Friday night's Game 3. The Lakers blew this one, and their center knows it.
Bynum (20 points on 8-of-19 shooting and nine rebounds in the loss) said as much with a sharp, somewhat curious postgame turn of phrase that was shared by the Lakers' Twitter account and later expounded upon by Sekou Smith at NBA.com's Hang Time blog :
The Lakers led 75-68 with two minutes to play with the game seemingly in hand. But instead of the veteran Lakers salting this one away with Kobe Bryant finishing the deal, the Lakers lost control of the game and basically gave it away.
"We're better than Santa Claus giving out gifts," said Lakers center Andrew Bynum. "We like giving out gifts. We give out games, contracts and rings."
"We give out games, contracts and rings." What's that about?
David West hustles Pacers off court after Game 2 win, but not quick enough for Dwyane Wade (VIDEO) (Ball Don't Lie) ...more ?
After Chris Bosh's Game 1 abdominal strain changed the landscape of the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Indiana Pacers took advantage of their opportunity in Game 2, scratching out a 78-75 win over the Heat on Tuesday night. It wasn't pretty ? the two teams combined to miss 97 field goals in 48 minutes of basketball, including 10 in the final 2:15 of the fourth quarter, as well as 17 free throws, including six in the last 80 seconds ? but a win's a win, and given the choice between playing lovely but dropping to 0-2 or getting grimy and being level, Indy'll take the latter.
[ Eric Adelson: Miami Heat fail to fill void left by the injured Chris Bosh ]
Miami point guard Mario Chalmers had a look at a 3-pointer from the wing that would have knotted the score at 78 with scant seconds remaining, but he missed (though he may have been fouled ) and the final buzzer sounded, at which point several Pacers momentarily got slightly happy. That kind of thing can happen when your team just stole a physical one on the road, securing a split at AmericanAirlines Arena that sends you back to Indiana with home-court advantage and much sunnier prospects than most outside of Bankers Life Fieldhouse imagined a week ago.
The reserved revelry was short-lived, though ? David West, Indiana's taciturn power forward, quickly kiboshed it, shepherding his teammates off the floor and back to the Indiana locker room.
"You know, we can't get too excited because we won one game," said West ? who led Indiana with 16 points (14 of which came in the second half) and 10 rebounds ? during his postgame press conference, which you can watch in full after the jump. "That's not our goal in this series. We can't overreact because we were able to get one game down here. We've got to win professionally and understand that we haven't reached the goal that we set out to reach."
Behind the Box Score, where the Oklahoma City Thunder look better than everyone (Ball Don't Lie) ...more ?
Oklahoma City Thunder 119, Los Angeles Lakers 90 (Thunder lead series, 1-0)
It's a typical maneuver to overreact to a game like this. To go back on your initial guess that Oklahoma City would take the series in six games, and then wonder just how the Lakers will stay in front of this team and not get blown out every night. We knew the Lakers would have trouble guarding Russell Westbrook, and that he might feast on a series of long Laker rebounds and dash end-to-end, but this was frightening. There's nothing wrong with wondering if the Thunder are going to sweep, here. It really appears as if no amount of uptick in drive, effort and sprightly legs could turn this thing around for Los Angeles. Oklahoma City looks that good.
[ Video highlights: Russell Westbrook, Thunder clobber Lakers ]
It might take more than a close Game 2 or Laker win in Game 3 to change that. The Thunder's transition play and pick-and-roll work (with Andrew Bynum being made to look a step slow whether he hedges or protects the paint) had the Lakers on their heels throughout. Kobe Bryant's long arms and defensive smarts still couldn't stay in front of Westbrook as he dashed his way toward 27 points (on just 15 shots), nine assists, two steals, seven rebounds and one turnover in under 28 minutes. RW's time matched up on Ramon Sessions and Steve Blake, as you'd expect, did not go over any better for Los Angeles.
Twenty-five points and no turnovers for Kevin Durant. Nine free throws in half a game from James Harden, 17 points total. Thabo Sefolosha hit all three of his shots and made life hell for Kobe Bryant. Kendrick Perkins might miss the rest of the series, for all we know at this point, and with Nazr Mohammed on board it might not matter. The Thunder are stacked. And, just two years removed from nearly taking the champion Lakers to a seventh game in the first round and a year after nearly making the Finals themselves, they look a step above Kobe's outfit right now.
Chris Bosh out indefinitely after straining abdominal muscle in Heat?s Game 1 win (VIDEO) (Ball Don't Lie) ...more ?
The Miami Heat announced Monday morning that forward/center Chris Bosh is "out indefinitely" after suffering a lower abdominal strain on a second-quarter slam over Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert in Miami's 95-86 Game 1 win on Sunday.
After driving from the right elbow and finishing with a left-handed slam over Hibbert late in the second quarter, Bosh fell to his knees on the floor of the AmericanAirlines Arena, reeling in pain. He exited the game and did not return, finishing with 13 points and five rebounds in just under 16 minutes of action. In six appearances this postseason, Bosh has averaged 14.7 points and 6.8 rebounds in 30.5 minutes per game for the Heat.
Postgame speculation on Bosh's injury ran rampant ahead of a scheduled Monday MRI to determine its extent and severity.
"You saw the look on his face ... you knew something was wrong there," Wade said, according to Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel .
Without Bosh, Miami rallied from a six-point halftime deficit behind huge performances from stars LeBron James (32 points, including 16 in the fourth quarter, to go with 15 rebounds, five assists and two steals) and Dwyane Wade (29 points, including a 13-of-14 mark from the free-throw line, and four assists) to down Indiana and take a 1-0 lead in the series.
[ Related: LeBron James' brilliant destruction of Pacers can't mask his maddening habits ]
"Indefinitely" is a deliberately vague term befitting an injury that can be a harsh, tricky beast. Abdominal strains limit range of motion, sap explosiveness, screw with mechanics and make reaching or contesting on defense an awful chore, and players who try to come back from them too quickly can wind up injuring themselves much more seriously and for a much longer period. If the strain's minor enough, a player can be back on the court in a week; if it's a more significant strain, he might be sidelined for two months.
Just how severe Bosh's strain is remains unclear. So does just how severely his injury impacts Miami, a team now experiencing its first serious medical bump in the road during a late-season run that has seen Eastern Conference foes in Orlando (Dwight Howard's back), Chicago (Derrick Rose's knee, Joakim Noah's ankle), Boston (Ray Allen's ankles, Paul Pierce's knee) and New York (the knees of Jeremy Lin, Iman Shumpert and Baron Davis) all suffer with health issues.