Kobe Bryant drops 36 points; Los Angeles Lakers hold Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 – NBA Playoffs
On Friday night at the Staples Center, the Los Angeles Lakers finally managed to score a win in their Western Conference Semi Final series against the Oklahoma City Thunder by holding on to a 99-96 lead in Game 3, making the series 1-2.
The Lakers did not collapse late like the way they did in Game 2, mostly due to Kobe Bryant impressive shooting from the free throw line. Bryant finished the game with 36 points with 14 of them coming in the fourth quarter alone. He was 18 of 18 from the charity stripe and also grabbed 7 rebounds and dished out six assists.
Andrew Bynum followed him up with double-double figures of 15 points and 11 rebounds with three blocks. He was also red hot from the stripe as he was also able to knock down 11 of his 12 free throws in the game. Pau Gasol, Ramon Sessions and Steve Blake also finished the game with 12 points each.
Metta World Peace was also very instrumental on the night with 10 points in the game. But his most significant contribution came with 12.9 seconds remaining in the game when he stole the ball from the Kevin Durant as he was just about to score on an offensive rebound.
Durant led the way for the Thunder with 31 points in the game, 18 of which came in the second half. Russell Westbrook provided him with good support by chipping in 21 points. James Harden also had 21 points in the game; however he did slow down in the second half after putting up 12 points in the first half.
The key to winning this matchup lied with the Lakers ability to draw fouls. They were very aggressive while driving to the basket and that allowed them 42 free throws attempts in the ball game. They held their nerve to knock down 41 of those which resulted in easy points for them.
Lakers came out gunning in this one as they raced to an 8-0 lead at the start of the game and went to prolong their advantage to 16-4, before finishing the frame at 23-15.
The early stages of the second quarter saw the OKC make their way back into the game and by the 6:14 mark, they were able to take their first lead in the ball game at 33-32 courtesy of a 5-0 spurt. Bryant was on the bench early in the second which allowed OKC to make their way back into the game. After Thunder took the lead, he came back to score on four free throws, but keyed by Westbrook, the visitors caught up and had it not been for World Peace knocking down a triple with 0.4 seconds remaining, making the score 50-47, the scores would have been level at the break.
In the early stages of the third quarter both teams tried their best to outplay the each other, however with about 5 minutes remaining in the period, the scores were 60-59. OKC put together a 6-0 burst from that point to get some kind of separation. However before going into the fourth quarter; Lakers had made their way back into the game to make the score 69-70.
The opening 5 minutes of the fourth quarter saw the scores remain level at 78. In the next several minutes of the ball game, OKC pulled ahead by 5 points twice but on both occasions, the Lakers were able to respond back, the second time answering back to cut the lead down to 1.
At the 1:09 mark in the fourth quarter, Kobe knocked down two clutch free throws to give the Lakers a one point lead. On the other end, Durant responded with a deuce to snatch the lead right back, but the Lakers would just not back down. Kobe was at it again from the stripe and he was followed up by World Peace as the Lakers took a 97-94 lead. OKC responded with a quick two by Perkins, but with 9.8 on the clock, Bryant knocked down another pair from the line to give LA a three point lead.
The Thunder were out of timeouts so they ran up the floor quickly and put the ball in their most trusted player Durant`s hand. He perhaps rushed into taking a long range triple at the 4.7 mark and missed. Serge Ibaka grabbed the offensive board and had the opportunity to cut the deficit down to 1; however his attempt was blocked by Bynum to give his team a hard fought win.
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