Lakers storm past Thunder in game 5
The injury concerns about Kobe Bryant may have been somewhat over exaggerated, after the superstar defended and shut down Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook.
After losing two games in OKC the Lakers went back to business, using home court and their physical size to dominate the paint. But it was the stellar play of Kobe who dictated how the game would turn out.
Marking Westbrook for most of the game, Bryant kept the young point guard to 15 points on 4-13 shooting whilst also forcing him into eight turnovers, and if the Lakers keep up their intensity on defence they showed on Tuesday night the Thunder will struggle to take the series to a seventh game decider.
Bryant finished the game with just 13 points, but did have seven assists and that was the key. The Lakers didn’t need Kobe to score 40 points, they needed him to lead the team and allow the big men to dominate the game.
Dominate is what they did, and between Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum the Lakers got 46 points, 22 rebounds, six assists and three blocks, whilst only committing two turnovers and two fouls. Efficiency which pleased Bryant.
"Considering how inconsistently we've been playing, and the last game in Oklahoma, this was one of our better [games of the season]," Bryant said after the game.
Thunder’s scoring champion, Kevin Durant was once again harassed all game by Ron Artest who shut down the forward restricting him to just 17 points on 5-14 shooting.
“I wish I could say why, but they kicked our butts from the beginning. They had some dunks early on and got the fans excited, and they just kind of cruised from there. It was tough to come back,” said Durant.
Durant and Westbrook combined for 9-of-27 shooting for Oklahoma City, which never recovered after missing its first 13 shots and if they want to shock the Lakers and knock them out, such slow starts can’t happen again.
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