Oklahoma City Thunder play hosts to Los Angeles Lakers in Game 5; Looking to advance to the Conference Finals – NBA Playoffs Preview
The Oklahoma City Thunder will play hosts to the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 5 of this Western Conference Semi-Final series at the Chesapeake Energy Arena on Monday night.
Thunder have a brilliant chance to wrap things up at home and advance to the conference finals where the mighty San Antonio Spurs await the winner of this series.
No matter how one sided the score line of 3-1 depicts the series to be, but all the games with the exception of Game-1, have been very close. The last three games of the series have been decided by a difference 2 or 3 points with
Oklahoma City stealing the last one in the final seconds of the game courtesy of a Kevin Durant triple and James Harden knocking down two free throws.
Lakers have been left frustrated by this young Thunder unit who have been very resilient and have given this much experience LA team a run for their money in every game. One thing that has been working for the Thunder is that they
haven’t had to rely on one player to get their offense going and having the likes of Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden among the line up has reaped benefits for them.
On the other hand, Kobe Bryant has been trying to do everything for the Lakers. He put up 38 points in the Game 4 loss with 31 of them coming in the first three quarters of the game; however, he could not deliver for his team when
it mattered the most.
Bryant has been very disappointed with the performances of his team mates and especially Pau Gasol who he feels needs to be more aggressive during games.
“Pau's got to be more assertive. When he catches the ball, he's looking to pass," – Bryant
However one things that this LA team needs to understand that Bryant`s offensive prowess alone cannot win them the championship, let alone this series. In order for them to be able to put a leash on this Thunder unit, the rest
of the Lakers lineup needs to step up in a major fashion.
One positive thing for the Lakers that can be concluded from Game-4 is that Metta World Peace is coming into his own as he was the instrumental cause for the Lakers dominance throughout the game. With his sturdy defence and exquisite
perimeter shooting, he may yet be the key for LA to make their way back into the series.
For the Thunder side, Durant and Westbrook have been the leaders for their team. Both of them have combined to score a total of 209 points in the series so far and their performances are going to be key for OKC in winning the game
and this series.
The Lakers however are masters of the playoffs and cannot be written on just yet.
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