Lakers play like champs in Game 5
Lee Jenkins/SI.com
LOS ANGELES -- The defending champions finally showed up to Staples Center on Tuesday night, fashionably late as always. They limped in looking old and tired and beaten. They sprinted out looking unstoppable. The Lakers, convalescent compared to the puckish Oklahoma City Thunder, seemed to find their legs all at once. They led 10-0 after four minutes. They led by 20 in the second quarter. They led by 30 in the third. Whether the Lakers go on to repeat as champions is anybody's guess, but in a 111-87 thumping of the Thunder in Game 5, they at least showed they are still capable.
Never mind the Lakers dropped nine of 15 to close the regular season and were pounded last week in Oklahoma City, including a blowout in Game 4 that portended an early end to their title defense. With the Lakers, one game does not say anything about the next, because their best performances almost inevitably follow their worst. Whether they are hustlers or flakes, they have to be the hardest team in the league to handicap.
Take small forward Ron Artest, for example, who was shooting 13 percent from 3-point range in the series and was admonished by coaches not to shoot any more 3s from the corner. How did Artest respond? Of course, in the first quarter he took a three from the corner -- and sank it. That set a tone for the Lakers to do just about everything they had not. After surrendering 47 fast-break points over two games in Oklahoma City, they allowed just seven. After getting beaten on the backboards, they won the rebounding margin and blocked 10 shots. After letting Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook make repeated bull runs at the rim, they knocked him to the floor twice in the first half.
Even the crowd at Staples, after watching the clinic put on by fans in Oklahoma City last week, raised their decibel level. They might have been mystified by their team's 180-degree turnaround if they had not witnessed the Lakers' maddening now-you-see-me-now-you-don't magic trick so many times before. Anxious moments in Los Angeles, early in the playoffs, against seemingly inferior opponents, have become rites of spring. Last season, when the Rockets pushed the Lakers to seven games without Yao Ming or Tracy McGrady, Kobe Bryant referred to his team as "bipolar." Apparently, that condition is not changing, even if other parts of their identity are.
When the Lakers won the championship last season, it was all about Bryant. If they repeat, it will still be about Bryant, but others will be part of the narrative. The way the Lakers tore through the Thunder on Tuesday is the way they will have to undo every opponent they face over the next two months. Pounding the ball inside to exploit their stark size advantage, center Andrew Bynum and power forward Pau Gasol finished with a combined 46 points on an efficient 18 of 26 shooting. With Gasol passing and Bynum finishing, the Lakers big men played the two-man game that they have been trying (often unsuccessfully) to develop all season.
Looks like someone is trying on some pants! The Lakers finally played with a much seeded sense of give-a-damn last night and it showed as the Laker front court had 60 points and knocked Russell Westbrook around like pinball wizards. But I'm not reversing my Monday opinion that this team is in dire straits. Trying to get this motley crew of wayward personalities to play with a sense of urgency is an almost impossible task. Kobe can't do it. Noone could (not even the sainted Michael Jordan). They certainly don't have the same fire as the Cavs. After eliminating the Bulls last nite Lebron and crew walked off the floor quickly with scowls plastered on their face. Anything but an NBA title isn't an option this season for the Cavs and a crash course with the Magic is on the horizon. My only hope is the Lakers can limp into the NBA Finals on talent and a handful of performances like last nite's.
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