Lakers’ Foul-Shooting Beats Thunder 99-96

One thing I have learned from following the Lakers:  No other team plays with as wide a range of bad to good, or should I say embarrassing to inspirational. We’ve seen both in the last couple of weeks. First against the Little Engine Who Couldn’t, who did embarrass the Lakers before succumbing to The Inevitable, and now against the Locomotive at Full Throttle Who Won’t if the Lakers Have Anything to Say About It.

It’s one thing to snap out of it and beat the Nuggets, bless their hearts. It’s quite another to get humiliated against the most feared team in the NBA, then come back in Game Two in that same hostile arena and outplay them (despite giving it away in the last two minutes), then in Game Three outplay them again but skip the give-away part.

A must-win is usually an elimination game but, since no team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit, let’s call it a must-win that the Lakers won. And they did it despite having an off-night—38.6% from the field and 15 turnovers. But they did some other things well. I guess by now even people in Singapore are talking about the Lakers’ 41 foul shots in 42 attempts. Let’s put it this way: If the Lakers shot 37 of 42 from the foul line—which would have been a terrific 88%–they would have lost.

Kobe Bryant, 9-25 from the floor, was 18-18 from the foul line. Bynum, 2-13 from the field, was 11-12 from the line. Despite shooting a combined 11-38 from the field, they shot a combined 29-30 from the foul line, even more and better than the whole Thunder team, who shot an excellent 26-28 from the foul line.

Gasol had his usual fine all-around game, with 12 points, 11 boards and six assists.

Bynum had trouble getting a decent shot off, mostly because of a collapsing defense but sometimes because he’s slow reading the double-team and getting the ball to an open man.

The Thunder, like the Heat, typically have three guys in high double figures and that’s all. And that’s the way it was last night. The Lakers, who have a pretty good Big Three of their own, had six guys in double figures. After Kobe’s 36, five other guys scored from 10 to 15 points. For the first time since they’ve been teammates, Sessions and Blake both hit double figures, each with 12 points. Sessions, who, I’ll say it again, should be on the court at crunch time, not Steve Blake, had a nice game early. Blake was 4-5 from the field. In the same number of minutes, Sessions handed out four assists; Blake, none.

World Peace’s defense was a big factor in this game. His mini-scrum with Westbrook was instructive. I don’t think Westbrook would’ve lashed out if he saw any other Laker, but Metta pushes people’s buttons. Westbrook should’ve gotten a technical and Metta nothing because he did nothing except be the heady defender that he is. His rep caught up with him there. As it turned  no harm done.

But the Play of the Day goes to one of my favs, Jordan Hill, who played 18 minutes and never took a shot from the field. Hill’s intensity around the hoop is something to see—as a defender, shot-blocker and rebounder. On this particular play, Durant drove to the basket from the left and as he rose to throw a dunk down with both hands, Hill closed the gap, rose straight up with him and a) blocked the shot, then b) took the ball away from him.

OKC lead the series 2-1. The Lakers only play three times at Staples. Those three games have to be wins. That includes tonight.  Opening tip is only three hours away. It’s getting exciting. I think now the Lakers really believe they can beat the Thunder.