Kobe Doing Work…Alone?
This series looks to be the most intriguing to watch out of the 4. You have the NBA’s top two leading scorers in Kobe Bryant & Kevin Durant, Ron Artest fresh off his suspension for elbowing James Harden, and a last but not least a motivated Derek Fisher to get revenge on his former employers. With the exception of their 18-point blown game that went to overtime 3 weeks ago, the Oklahoma City Thunder have handled the Lakers every time they met this season. Oklahoma City hasn’t played in more than a week after sweeping the defending NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks in the first round. Many critics feel they might endure rust for game 1 but OKC feels they are ready to keep proving themselves to the basketball world that they are the team of now and not of the future. Kendrick Perkins who’s been suffering from a hip injury is expected to play game 1 giving OKC an advantage in post defense. During the season, as a team OKC was ranked 3rd in post-up and 4th in isolation defenses and not much changed during round 1 against Dallas as Dirk encountered his worst playoff series ever. The Lakers have a chance to actually win this series, but the problem isn’t Kobe but whether the supporting cast will show up to play. Expect this series to go 6 or 7 games with OKC as the favorite to pull through.
(2) Oklahoma City Thunder vs. (3) Los Angeles Lakers | Series Tied 0-0
Regular season series (Oklahoma City won 2-1)
Game 1: at OKC, Mon. May 14, 9:30 p.m., TNT
Game 2: at OKC, Weds. May 17, 9:30 p.m., TNT
Game 3: at LAL, Fri. May 18, 10:30 p.m., ESPN
Game 4: at LAL , Sat. May 19, 10:30 p.m., TNT
Game 5: at OKC, If Necessary
Game 6: at LAL, If Necessary
Game 7: at OKC, If Necessary