A lot of people were starting to jump on the Oklahoma City Thunder bandwagon after the Los Angeles Lakers lost two straight to the Thunder, including a 110-89 blowout loss in game four.  Those people got a reality check in the Lakers 111-87 blowout victory in game 5 last night.  I don’t mean to take anything away from Kevin Durant and the Thunder, who have shown they belong in the playoffs, but after the Lakers went up 2-0 they kind of went into cruise control against the young Thunder.  The Thunder proved they aren’t a team that will just roll over and let the Lakers breeze through the first round, but the Lakers are still the much better team and they proved that last night.  Kobe Bryant only scored 13 points on 4-9 shooting, so it wasn’t like Kobe took over and had one of those nights were nobody could stop him.  He did show off his defensive prowess though, shutting down the Thunder’s super athletic point guard Russell Westbrook.  Last night it was a Lakers team that showed off their depth and dominance, with 10 different players scoring and five in double figures.  They held the Thunder to 37% shooting and got 21 points off of 17 turnovers, while holding Durant to just 17 points on 5-14 shooting.  The Thunder definitely deserve some respect, but for the people that thought they were actually going to upset the number one seeded defending champions in the first round need to wake up.  I expect the Lakers to wrap up this series in game six and they are still my favorite to win the 2010 NBA Championship.

The Lakers got blasted in game #4 as the Thunder punished them for all four quarters. Pau Gasol (13 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists) and Andrew Bynum (13 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocked shots) led the way for the Lakers last night. Kobe Bryant (12 points), Derek Fisher (11 points), Lamar Odom (12 points) and Shannon Brown (10 points) all pitched in offensively for the Lakers in this game. The Lakers are tied up 2-2 with the Thunder in this series and they looked like a old, broke down team last night.

The Lakers got pushed around a little bit last night as the Thunder outrebounded them 53-39 last night and the Lakers were outscored 27-21 in the 4th quarter as the Thunder looked like they wanted this basketball game more. Kobe Bryant had another rough shooting night hitting 10 of 29 shots from the floor as he finished up with 24 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 steals. Pau Gasol had another big game for the Lakers last night with 17 points, 15 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 blocked shots. Derek Fisher pitched in with 17 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists last night for the Lakers. The Lakers still hold a 2-1 edge in this series.

The Lakers turned up the D holding the Thunder to 39.2% shooting from the floor plus they outrebounded the Thunder 49-37 which really helped them win this game. Kobe Bryant led the way for the Lakers last night with 39 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals on 12 of 28 shooting from the floor. Pau Gasol also had a outstanding game last night for the Lakers with 25 points, 12 rebounds and 2 assists. Bryant and Gasol were the only two Lakers’ players with more than six points last night and it’s hard to win that way. The Lakers are now up 2-0 in this series as it heads to Oklahoma City this weekend.

The Lakers used their size advantage on the boards and they played solid defense (especially Ron Artest) to down the Thunder yesterday in game #1 of this series. Kobe Bryant had a terrible shooting day hitting only 6 of 19 shots from the floor but he still finished up with 21 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocked shots. Pau Gasol was outstanding as usual for the Lakers in this game with 19 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocked shots. Andrew Bynum played his first game in quite some while and he finished with 13 points, 12 rebounds, 1 assist and 4 blocked shots in only 30 minutes on the court. The Lakers got into Kevin Durant’s head, at least in this game, as he was only 7 of 24 shooting from the floor as Ron Artest was in his face all game long. The Lakers are up 1-0 in this series.