Kevin Durant scores 17, Kobe Bryant 25 as Lakers take 3-2 series lead.
LOS ANGELES, CA.–Oklahoma native Garth Brooks once sang "It’s Midnight Cinderella", and for the Oklahoma City Thunder the clock is sitting somewhere near 10:30pm now after a 111-87 shellacking at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers Tuesday night in the Staples Center.
The Thunder were the victims of a reality check after back-to-back victories against the World Champs in Oklahoma City.
The Lakers chnaged just about everything in their game plan and caught the Thunder off guard. They forced Oklahoma City to commit some 17 turnovers and limited the Thunder to only 7 points on the fast break by playing closer in defense against Russell Westbrook and forced Kevin Durant to make only 9 of 14 attempted shots from the floor.
The tempo of the game was decided early on as it took Oklahoma City some 6:11 to score their first two points on a Kevin Durant jump shot. At that point the Lakers had opened a 10-0 run. At the end of the first quarter they were down 31-16 and never recovered. It didn’t get much better from there.
It was as if the Thunder changed places and mimiced the sluggish play of the Lakers in the Ford Center in Game 4. The Lakers effectively shut Russell Westbrook down by closing him down when he’d charge the lane to shoot. The surprising effective guarding by Kobe Bryant managed to keep the upstart from UCLA in check for most of the night.
The game boiled down to the Lakers making the changes that they neede to in order to win. Oklahoma City now has to regroup and see if they are up to the challenge as the series shifts back to the Ford Center for Game 6 Friday night in the Ford Center. The Lakers can clinch the series with a win that night.
Thunder fans in Tulsa can catch the game on either Fox Sports Oklahoma (cable-27) or TNT (cable-29) at 8:30pm local time.
| Oklahoma City Thunder (50-32) | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| field goalsrebounds | |||||||||||||||||
| pos | min | fgm-a | 3pm-a | ftm-a | +/- | off | def | tot | ast | pf | st | to | bs | ba | pts | ||
| J. Green | F | 32:49 | 3-10 | 1-2 | 1-1 | -27 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 8 | |
| K. Durant | F | 32:54 | 5-14 | 2-6 | 5-6 | -25 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 17 | |
| N. Krstic | C | 17:39 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 2-2 | -24 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| T. Sefolosha | G | 20:00 | 1-7 | 1-3 | 0-0 | -24 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| R. Westbrook | G | 32:40 | 4-13 | 2-4 | 5-8 | -26 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 15 | |
| N. Collison | 10:31 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | -3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| J. Harden | 25:12 | 4-10 | 1-3 | 2-3 | -3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 11 | ||
| S. Ibaka | 28:25 | 6-11 | 0-0 | 0-0 | +4 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 12 | ||
| E. Maynor | 15:50 | 1-4 | 0-1 | 1-2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| E. Thomas | 12:00 | 4-5 | 0-0 | 2-2 | +4 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | ||
| K. Weaver | 12:00 | 1-4 | 0-1 | 0-0 | +4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| K. Ollie | DNP – Coach’s Decision | ||||||||||||||||
| Total | 240 | 31-84 | 7-20 | 18-24 | 14 | 28 | 42 | 18 | 25 | 6 | 16 | 3 | 10 | 87 | |||
| 36.9% | 35.0% | 75.0% | team rebs: 7 | total to: 17 | |||||||||||||
| Los Angeles Lakers (57-25) | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| field goalsrebounds | |||||||||||||||||
| pos | min | fgm-a | 3pm-a | ftm-a | +/- | off | def | tot | ast | pf | st | to | bs | ba | pts | ||
| R. Artest | F | 31:00 | 6-11 | 2-4 | 0-0 | +24 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 14 | |
| P. Gasol | F-C | 29:49 | 10-16 | 0-0 | 5-5 | +27 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 25 | |
| A. Bynum | C | 27:28 | 8-10 | 0-0 | 5-7 | +21 | 2 | 9 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 21 | |
| K. Bryant | G | 29:17 | 4-9 | 0-2 | 5-7 | +27 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 13 | |
| D. Fisher | G | 31:27 | 3-6 | 0-2 | 0-0 | +25 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 6 | |
| L. Odom | 31:26 | 3-8 | 1-2 | 0-0 | +5 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 7 | ||
| S. Brown | 19:37 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 0-2 | -2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | ||
| J. Farmar | 18:54 | 3-4 | 2-2 | 6-8 | -1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 14 | ||
| L. Walton | 05:00 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | +4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| A. Morrison | 08:45 | 2-6 | 0-1 | 0-0 | -5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||
| J. Powell | 07:17 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 1-2 | -5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | ||
| D. Mbenga | DND – retinal surgery left eye | ||||||||||||||||
| Total | 240 | 42-78 | 5-14 | 22-31 | 10 | 35 | 45 | 27 | 19 | 10 | 13 | 10 | 3 | 111 | |||
| 53.8% | 35.7% | 71.0% | team rebs: 10 | total to: 13 | |||||||||||||