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Lackluster good enough for Lakers in this series
By Mike Celizic/NBCSports.com contributor

Kobe Bryant called it a grind-it-out kind of game. Like the owner of one of those hairless cats, he had the decency to admit, “It wasn’t pretty.”

The question is whether the Lakers’ thoroughly pedestrian 87-79 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder is indicative of where the Lakers are as a team as they set off to defend their 2009 NBA title. If it is, it’s going to be a long and grueling and ugly journey, one characterized by smothering defense and not by thrilling offense.

The problems with these sorts of games are that you can use them to prove anything you want and they are the first games in a playoff season that’s going to run for two months. You can read way too much into it.

You could, for example, decide off the evidence of Game 1 of Series 1 that the Lakers are not running like the well-oiled machine that rolled to a championship last year. Kobe Bryant, who’s been fighting injuries, wasn’t a dominant force. He picked his spots to turn it up a notch, always when the Thunder started to think they could compete with the Lakers. But for the most part, he was just another player out there.

In fact, nobody on the Lakers was a dominant offensive force. On the other hand, none of them stunk. They spread the ball around, got 16 points off the bench, dominated the boards and played tight defense.

Against the Thunder, the youngest team in the NBA and one making its first playoff appearance since its move to Oklahoma City, that was more than enough. Oklahoma’s offensive star, Kevin Durant, is obviously talented, as is guard Russell Westbrook, but they’re just kids, and Durant’s first-game nerves were obvious.

Also obvious was the wisdom the Lakers showed in hiring career bad actor Ron Artest. Artest, who’s taken to dying his hair like Dennis Rodman used to, is there to play defense. Phil Jackson told him to guard Durant, and that’s what Artest did. He did it very well, and unless Durant can put 20 pounds of muscle on his anorexic frame between now and Game 2, he will continue to do it well.



It’s a great luxury to have so much offense at other positions that you can have one player whose only job is to play defense or rebound or perform some other unsung but vital chore. And it’s a sign of great maturity on the part of Artest to understand that the way to stay in the league and keep collecting those munificent paychecks is to volunteer for the dirty jobs. Hey, it worked for Mike Rowe, why not Ron Artest?

A lot of people told the Lakers to stay away from Artest. The team decided he’d grown up a bit and could make them better. The team was right. As the playoffs go on, Artest is going to be increasingly important.

I'll cut Celvizic off there. If you'd like to read the rest click here. Due to my self imposed one day hiatus yesterday I wasn't able to boast of my Lakers' quality victory in their first playoff game. Sure, the detractors may say that effort was lacking, the team was flat and it was a less than impressive win. But I only wanted to see a few things. I wanted them to cover the spread (for obvious reasons), I want Artest to prove his defensive worth (held Durant to 7-24 shooting) and I wanted Bynum to make a strong return (30 min, 13 points, 12 rebounds). Most of all I just like how the narrative about Artest has shifted overnight. Last week he was a stupid pickup and a downgrade from Ariza. Today he's the best defender since Bruce Bowen. But I'd say I got what I wanted and thensome from Sunday's game. Especially with the hated Celtics losing Kevin Garnett for a game. Way to throw blows at guys smaller than you Big Ticket. Have fun wearing a suit to tonight's game.