Welcome in to the full recap of the Lakers' matchup vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder where the Lakers kept this an entertaining game behind Lou Williams' career-night, but once again the duo of Westbrook and Durant proved to be too much as the Lakers fall to the Thunder 117-113.
Another game where the Lakers competed their hearts off, another night for a loss. Usually when the Lakers give their all in one game on back-to-back sets, they just shut off on the next and with the Thunder on schedule, many of this expected to be a blowout. But man, these losses against the Kings Thursday night and tonight against the Thunder, I'm not completely mad or being sarcastic as usual. This young Laker team is knowing how to compete night in and night out. They had another chance to try and put this game away after coming back from being down the whole game, but they just come up short. It's definitely another learning experience that this Laker squad can take into consideration.
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Lou Williams, 44 points, 12-23 shooting, 15-15 from the free throw line. There's no denying this: Sweet Lou was on fire tonight. Out of all the three free agents the Lakers signed this offseason, snagging the reigning Sixth Man of the Year from Toronto proved to be a coup this season. Even if he has a bad game from a shooting standpoint like Tuesday against the Warriors when he went 0-7 from the field, he makes up for it with his precise free throw shooting. However, when the shooting clicks with the free throws, chances are he's going 20 or more points. Lou single-handedly put the Lakers on his back this game offensively. He deserves double positives for being one of the reasons why the Lakers kept hanging around against the Thunder tonight.
Kobe Bryant, 19 points, 8-20 shooting, 6 assists. Yes, Kobe cooled down when it mattered the most in clutch time, but he put up some throwback moments offensively, making impossible threes, crossing over players and pulling up for a jumper. He gave the home crowd a show, successfully following up quite a performance back in Sac-Town last night. Despite the ugly finish in the clutch, Bryant made a key assist to Clarkson to put the Lakers back within one and he made a good decision to go for the tie instead of forcing up a three for the win, he just didn't get the foul called on Durant.
Anthony Brown. Brown's stat line of 3 points, 1 rebound, and 1 assist is not impressive, but that's not the reason why I'm putting the 2nd round rookie on the positive list. He played some good defense down the stretch against the Thunder and eventually made some key stops to give the Lakers a chance. For Brown to play good defense against Durant, Westbrook, and company, that's an example of not being afraid of the moment for him since he only plays during garbage time when the game is well out of reach. Not to mention, his only bucket proved to be a critical one in the Lakers' late rally.
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Offensive rebounding. Just rehashing what I said from the halftime post, this side of rebounding for the Lakers is what killed the team all game long. Despite making the stat line close where the Lakers grabbed 10 offensive boards to the Thunder's 16, they were getting dominated by the Thunder. If the Lakers want to successfully display good defense, they have to hustle and box out for defensive rebound. It was clear as day that the Thunder wanted the rebounds more and as a result: 2nd chance opportunities resulting into 2nd chance points.
Turnovers. Again a little deceptive stat when the Lakers committed only 11 turnovers compared to the 13 committed by the Thunder. Night in and night out, the Thunder demonstrate that if any team turns the ball over to them, they are off to the races in transition to the other side of the court for an easy deuce. As a young team, this will continually be a growing pain for the Lakers until the young players get the memo to take care of the ball and not try to do too much. This game is one of the prime examples given the Thunder are so dangerous in transition.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, a win is a win and a loss is a loss and this is a loss in the books for the Lakers. But as a fan and seeing the competitive level the last two games and observing their brief three game winning streak, this Lakers team is really taking baby steps while tanking for the top 3 pick. They are definitely showing more competitiveness at this stretch of this lost season, but definitely, successfully closing out games like this game and the game against the Kings last night after trailing most of the game should be a top priority of things to work on if the Lakers want to get back to relevancy after Kobe Bryant calls it a career this season. Nonetheless, hell of an effort in this back-to-back stretch. Just a reminder, I might be nitpicky with what nationally-televised games I'm going to cover from this point on because my schedule for the semester is going to be unpredictable since I'm applying for internships. I'm not sure, but I just want to throw that out there. I'll notify you guys, just keep following the bottom of the quick recaps for every Laker game. I'll see you guys later.
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