NBA Playoffs Lakers-Thunder Game 5 Recap: They Crush Your Head

We knew they had it in them.

It’s been pretty obvious the last couple of months that if the Lakers wanted to play basketball the intelligent way then they would have a lot more games like this. Instead, the Lakers have been all over the place. They’ve been blaming their struggles on injuries and a lack of rhythm instead of showing some heart and fortitude on defense to go along with smarter shot selection on offense. We’ve been waiting to see them take advantage of the length that nobody else can match, rather than chucking up 20-footers because it’s the easy way out.

If you’re wondering how the Lakers dominated this game against a Thunder team that seemed ready to shock the world or surprise the league or show that nobody believed in them or proved the doubters wrong or win some more basketball games then you should look no further than the symbolic and definitive 10-0 run the Lakers used to start the game and build an insurmountable lead:

- First play of the game, the Lakers move the ball around the perimeter until they get it back to Derek Fisher on the left wing. By the time the ball gets back to Fisher, Andrew Bynum has muscled Nenad Krstic into the middle of the key. Unfortunately for the Lakers, Fisher throws an errant entry pass that Bynum attempts to save. The result is a turnover with a pass out of bounds.

- The Thunder come down and run a little screen down on Durant in the post to allow him to come up to the elbow and launch a jumper. Ron Artest does a good job of getting around the screen quickly enough to fly at Durant to contest the shot. The result is a missed jumper and a defensive rebound for the Lakers.

- Lakers work the ball to Pau Gasol on the left baseline. Pau promptly takes Jeff Green into the low block then drop-steps to the baseline for that unstoppable left-handed hook. That’s twice in two possessions the Lakers have gone to a post play. They’re up 2-0.

- The Thunder work the ball into Durant just above the low right block. He takes a quick but contested fadeaway jumper over Artest for the miss.

- Derek Fisher gets the eventual rebound after a failed tip-dunk attempt by Thabo and races up the court with the ball. He takes advantage of the Thunder’s continually inept transition defense by getting into the lane. However, he misses the runner.

- Russell Westbrook gets the ball off the Krstic board and pushes the ball back up the court. He attacks Ron Artest who plays solid defense by standing his ground and using his size advantage to cause a jump ball.

- Next play gives Kobe the ball in the right corner. As Kobe drives the baseline and attracts the attention of the Thunder help defense, Bynum flashes right through the lane from the left side. Kobe throws a bad pass that sails out of bounds but again the Lakers try to get points inside.

- Ensuing possession the Thunder drop the ball into Jeff Green inside against Artest. Green drives towards the baseline and puts up a terrible runner against Andrew Bynum. Against most other defenses, Green probably scores the basket or gets fouled but against Bynum, he just can’t get past his size.

- Kobe misses a wide-open spot-up three-pointer (three dashes in a row!) and then contests a jumper by Westbrook as he fights around a screen. We’ve now played two minutes and the Thunder really haven’t had a quality shot other than the first missed shot by Durant.

- Fisher grabs the long rebound, takes it right up the court and gets a fairly easy layup off of a little hesitation move against Westbrook. Fisher took advantage of the one-on-one situation because even though Thunder had the 4-2 advantage defensively, nobody properly raced to the key to provide Russell with some help defense. 4-0 Lakers.

- Thunder run a pick-and-pop play on the right side of the floor that gets Krstic a wide-open jumper. He misses it and the Lakers take the ball back up the court. Bynum takes Krstic to the middle of the key and then pretends to go set a back pick on Jeff Green. At the same time, Kobe drives down the right side of the floor in transition and forces Krstic to step up. Bynum slips the screen and catches a nice alley-oop pass from Kobe for the dunk. 6-0 Lakers.

- OKC comes down and runs a dribble hand-off play to get Thabo Sefolosha a jumper. I’m sure that you’re shocked they would run that play for him and amazed that it didn’t work.

- Cross-court passing and a laser from Artest to Gasol in the post gets Pau good position to work his way into the middle of the key and put up a right-handed half hook. Clanks front iron. Thunder push the tempo and get Thabo a layup that is promptly blocked by every member of the Lakers and Jack Nicholson.

- Lakes try to work the ball into Bynum again to maximize the mismatch with Krstic. Krstic fronts Bynum on the left block so the Lakers move the ball back to the top of the key as Bynum reverse pivots to create an easy lob over the top inside. Bynum lays the ball in and it’s 8-0 Lakers.

- Durant gets the ball in an iso situation with Kobe guarding him on the right side. As he faces up and tries to create a little space, Kobe steals the ball from him. Fisher gets the ball in the middle of the floor and dribble to the right side. At this point, Gasol has raced down the middle of the floor and set up on the lower right block. Bynum is trailing the play and makes a B-line right down the middle of the key. Fisher whips a pass into Gasol who drops a perfect bounce pass to the cutting Bynum for another dunk. 10-0 Lakers, four minutes into the game.

Let’s take a quick review of what happened in these plays. The Lakers tried to get a scoring opportunity nine times to open the game with just one jump shot attempt (which was an open three by Kobe that missed). They also used smart defense to get the Thunder to shoot low-percentage jumpers. When the Thunder actually got the ball inside, it was either a jump ball or a blocked shot. The Lakers knew they had the size advantage and they used it early.

So why doesn’t this happen every game? Why do the Lakers get lazy? Why do they make things harder for themselves?

They had 58 points in the paint during this 24-point demolishing of the Thunder. That’s 32 more points inside than Oklahoma City scored. And it’s something they can do with their size. Also, something they can do with their size is defend. When the Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Men are in the game, the perimeter defenders can play so aggressively. They know they have backup if they get beat. This allows the Lakers to have an easier time forcing turnovers. By the way, they scored 21 points off of the 17 Thunder turnovers.

Again, I ask you – why don’t they ALWAYS play like this?

The problem is that there is nobody in the West to challenge this team. Sure, the Thunder are giving them a good run and the Spurs look like they might be showing flashes of the decade dominant team we are used to. But nobody can realistically make the Lakers pay four times in seven games.

They can win when they have to. When they play like this, they’re a despicable affront to everything we love about sports. But without someone to keep them honest, how do you teach them the lesson to get them to change?

It’s like they’re heading down the path that the 2006-2008 Detroit Pistons showed us. They only played tough, hard-nosed basketball when they had to. But they ran into problems in their own conferences that ended up breaking their will. The Lakers don’t have that wake-up call. Nobody in the West scares them and rightfully so. There is no check and balance for the Lakers.

So they’ll go on coasting through the playoffs and there is nothing anybody can do about it. When they get to the NBA Finals, they’ll finally have a true test in either the Cavs or Magic. Even then, will it matter?

This is not the great team we were spoon-fed with dreams of 70 wins this past October. They’re just good enough and winning games whenever they feel like it.

Oster-Tags: Andrew Bynum, Derek Fisher, Jeff Green, Kevin Durant, Kids in The Hall, kobe bryant, Los Angeles Lakers, Nenad Krstic, Oklahoma City Thunder, pau gasol, Ron Artest, Russell Westbrook, Thabo Sefolosha