If there is one thing that these playoffs have shown us, its that records are made to be broken, and no lead is safe. Once again, the Lakers took a lead into the 4th quarter of their game with the Thunder, and once again the Thunder pulled out a victory. The Thunder took game 4 with a 103-100 final., after being down by 13 points with just 8 minutes left to go in the game. The Thunder started the game a bit flat, and even though they had hung around most of the first 3 quarters, you never got the sense that this was the Thunder team that destroyed the Lakers in game 1 by 29 points running away. Especially on the 2nd night of a back to back, one would have expected the Lakers to come out a bit tired and soft, and yet it was these same Lakers that pounded the ball inside to Andrew Bynum to take an early double digit lead. In fact, the Lakers led most of the game, and this certainly seemed like a game the Lakers were destined to win, holding the Thunder to 46 first half points. The pace through the first half was played at a Laker pace, and the jumpers that are the hallmark of this very good Thunder squad just weren’t falling. And yet, after game 2, you could always sense a bit of nervousness on the part of the Lakers team and their fans. Even Steve Kerr, who was commentating the game, made mention of this during the early parts of the 4th quarter. And during one of the last Thunder timeouts, Scott Brooks mentions in the huddle “we haven’t played our best basketball.” And he was right…the Thunders best basketball was yet to come.
There are many plays that can turn the course of a game, and it would be hard to pick out a single play from this game that caused the Thunder to turn the corner, but it all comes down to your stars have to play well and that was certainly the case tonight. Russell Westbrook played out of his mind in the 3rd quarter and Kevin Durant did what Kevin Durant do in the 4th quarter. With KD and Russ combining for 21 points in the 4th quarter (outscoring the entire Lakers team in the process) they showed that they were not ready to surrender even though down by double digits in the 4th. KD and Russ combined for 68 of the Thunder’s 103 points, and traded off down the stretch making big plays for their team. KD played stellar defense on Kobe (who went 0-4 while being guarded by KD) and the Thunder defense in general stiffened up in the final period to hold the Lakers to 43% for the game. Ibaka and Perkins stepped up late (Ibaka having back to back blocks on Jordan Hill within 5 feet of the basket, Perk with several key rounds in traffic and HUGE putback of a Westbrook missed jumper) and even Fisher chipped in a nice 3 pointer from the corner in the comeback. But make no mistake - this was all about the Thunder stars, and they surely delivered.
Now I’m going to throw something out there, and I know its been brought up before - but I’m going to bring it up again. The Lakers 2 losses have exposed them as being soft mentally. If you’re mentally tough, and know what you need to do to win a basketball game, you go out and get it done. When you’ve got a 7 point lead with 2 minutes left to go, if you’re mentally tough, you win that game. If you’ve got a double digit lead with 8 minutes left, you win that one too. Mental mistakes and an over reliance on Kobe Bryant for their offense did the Lakers in in both of these games. When you’ve got a clear advantage in the post, you need to use that advantage until the defense takes it away from you. Instead of going down low, the Lakers spread the floor for Kobe to take long jumper after long jumper and he didn’t (maybe doesn’t?) have anything left in the tank. He talks a good game, and certainly Kobe has shown himself to play big at times, but I think the rest of his team is soft mentally, and I don’t think there is anything he can do to change that. And now, down 3-1, it may be too late to try and change anything. But after this series is over, on thing is certain - there will be some things changing in LA. You can take that to the bank.
Game 5 is Monday night - the Thunder already eliminated the last NBA champ…can they do the same to the champs from 2 years ago? You know what my answer is…tune in to watch history unfold. #ThunderNationRISE
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