The Oklahoma City Thunder play the Los Angeles Lakers this afternoon at Staples Center.
Sometimes, you have to take the good with the bad. For Lakers fans, the good is May 19 and the draft lottery. And then, the draft itself followed by free agency. The bad has been this dreadful season- watching it, suffering through it, being resigned by it. What has made all of it bearable is the hope that the Lakers three year nightmare will be over, at least to some degree.
But, for the Lakers themselves, the ones who are actually playing basketball, their good is right now. The Lakers have not won four games in a row since April 9-14, 2013. In the middle of that streak, game three, Kobe Bryant tore his Achilles and the Lakers fortune went downhill immediately. But not before winning two more games and having a five game winning streak to end the season.
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The Lakers hope for a similar outcome, absent the torn Achilles. They are playing a Thunder team without Kevin Durant or Russell Westbrook. The Lakers will see a lot of D.J. Augustin as the point guard and Dion Waiters as the shooting guard. The Thunder offense will run through Serge Ibaka with the usual Thunder reinforcements of Nick Collison, Mitch McGary and Anthony Morrow. For once, the Thunder will have a peek into the Lakers world, a team without A-level stars. But, herein lies the distinction: the Thunder role players are still talented. They defend, and without Westbrook, they’ll have crisp ball movement. The Thunder are in the thick of a playoff chase and are extremely motivated. They can’t lose a game to a terrible team like the Lakers.
Or can they?
In this mini-streak of theirs, the Lakers have some particular habits. Carlos Boozer has been the starter. Jordan Clarkson has averaged 16 points, shooting 64%. Jeremy Lin had a 25 point game, and a 14 point, 5 rebound, 6 assist game. The Lakers bench has outscored their opponents by 46 points (39 points against the Celtics to start the streak on Sunday). They don’t seem to miss Nick Young.
The Lakers are shooting 48% which is 5 points above their season average. They have scored 30+ points in every fourth quarter of the streak and have held their opponents below 100 points in two out of the three games.
But, let’s not overreact. The three Lakers victories have been against teams that are either above average (Milwaukee Bucks) or lottery bound (Boston Celtics, Utah Jazz). The Thunder, without Westbrook and Durant, are not as interesting as they once were, nor are they as explosive. But, they are one more test to see who wins the front page.
Is it the Laker fans who are desperate for that top five pick? Or, is it the players themselves who want to keep the winning streak alive?