Kevin Durant powers Oklahoma City Thunder to
overcome the mighty Los Angeles Lakers 120-106
Kevin Durant powered Oklahoma City Thunder to overcome the mighty Los Angeles Lakers, as they lost their fifth straight game, 120-106 on Sunday night at STAPLES Centre. Durant scored 31 points, along with four rebounds, two assists
and one steal.
The Thunder tipped-off aggressively and grabbed the lead straight away. Then, in the 9:03 minute, they made a violent surge and outscored the Lakers with an 11-2 run, this pushed the scores to 21-11. The Lakers were trailed by
11 points when they quickly gathered themselves and made the possession. This resulted in a 10-3 surge which cut the deficit to four (33-29). However, Los Angeles fell five short (36-31), when the first quarter ended.
Thunder’s James Harden smacked a whooshing three pointer right at the tip of the second quarter and put his team on the driving seat. The Thunder capitalized the situation and stretched the lead into double-digits again (49-39).
The Lakers didn’t give up as they fought hard and succeeded in slashing the shortfall yet again with a 20-11 run. This time they end up two points behind the Thunder (66-64).
The Thunder dominated the Lakers throughout the first half. Their largest lead was of 12 that came in the opening quarter. Oklahoma City shot 62 percent from the field, they hit 6 of 9 three-point attempts and made 14 free throws
out of 15.
After the break, the Thunder pushed the lead, but this time the Lakers remained within the striking distance and when Kobe Bryant hit a free throw on Thabo Sefolosha’s technical foul the Lakers tied the scores (74-74) for the first
time in the entire game, then Derek Fisher appeared on the scene with a floater that gave Los Angeles their first lead of the game (76-74) midway through the third.
However, the Lakers failed to hold on to the lead, as the Thunder replied with eight straight points before the Lakers outplayed them with a 13-6 run to take a 90-88 lead, when the third quarter finished.
The battle of the supremacy continued as the teams swapped leads throughout the fourth quarter. Bryant hit seven straight points to give the Lakers their last lead. Before, Durant and Russell Westbrook jointly tallied nine points
in the Thunder's final 16 points surge. The Thunder won the game by a good margin of 14 points. This was a remarkable performance by the Thunder, considering that they were just one point ahead when 3:10 were left in the fourth.
This was Oklahoma City’s fourth straight and first win against the Lakers on the road since March 2006. Westbrook made 26, Harden 16 and Ibaka 15. With this win the Thunder are now just one game behind the Lakers and Dallas Mavericks
and they are still left with two more games. If they end up winning both of them, they can finish up at No. 2 spot in the Western Conference.
On the other hand, the Lakers haven’t lost this many since 2006-07. Bryant topped the squad with 31 points, while Andrew Bynum made 12 points and 13 rebounds and Pau Gasol had 26.
Next up the Lakers will meet the San Antonio Spurs at home on Tuesday, whereas, the Thunder will take on the Sacramento Kings on Monday night.
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