Russell Westbrook a surprise in Thunder’s first playoff game ever.

LOS ANGELES, CA– Kevin Durant scored 24 points and Nenad Krstic had 7 rebounds but the story of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s opening game loss to the Lakers Sunday was the outstanding performance of Russell Westbrook in the Thunder’s 87-79 loss to the NBA’s defending champions.

The UCLA product was right at home in the Staples Center as he scored 23 points and had 8 assists in the game which saw the Thunder hold their own against the Lakers, who had to throw everything at them to keep pace.  On L.A.’s side of the court superstar Kobe Bryant had 21 points in the game, his first asfter sitting out the final eight regular season games for the Lakers, while Barcelona native Pau Gasol scored 19 points and had 13 rebounds.

Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, the NBA’s scoring champion had a hard time getting started in the game, having to shake off the defense of jouneyman NBA thug Ron Artest and that resulted in the Texas Longhorn only going 7-24 on the night.  Conversely, Russell Westbrook went 10-16 from the floor and made the biggest statement of all for the Oklahoma City squad who had little to be ashamed of in the 8 point loss on enemy territory Sunday afternoon.

The Thunder have a chance to even the series at one game apiece as the series continues tomorrow night with game two in the Staples Center, gametime is 9:30pm and the game will be shown on TNT, Cox Cable 29.   The first NBA playoff game to be held in the state of Oklahoma will take place at 8:30pm on Thursday, April 22 in the Ford Center.