Thunder at Lakers
The Oklahoma City Thunder annihilated the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday and look to deliver another thumping when the teams meet in Los
Angeles on Wednesday. Oklahoma City rolled to an easy 118-78 home
victory last weekend and the 40-point margin of defeat was eight points
shy of the worst loss in Lakers history.
Small forward Kevin Durant is adjusting well to the offensive tactics of first-year coach Billy Donovan and has scored 20 or more points in each of the past 14 games. Durant knocked down the go-ahead jumper with 5.8 seconds left to cap off a 24-point effort in Monday's 100-99 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers and then blocked the game-winning shot attempt by Chris Paul at the buzzer. "No doubt, the block was good for our team," Durant said afterward. "But as a kid, I wanted to hit the game-winner all the time. So I'll take the game-winner over the block." The Lakers rebounded well from the severe beating by the Thunder as Kobe Bryant matched his season high with 31 points in Tuesday's 111-107 road win over the Denver Nuggets.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, NBA TV, FSN Oklahoma, TWC SportsNet (Los Angeles)
ABOUT THE THUNDER (19-9): Durant always has been more of a scorer than a defensive player but he pointed to the block of Paul's shot as proof that he has made strides. "I feel like my defense has grown," Durant told reporters. "Since my first year, I never was a liability on that end. I just had to learn the skills, so I felt like I could always guard every position if I was locked in and being aggressive and using my length to my advantage." Point guard Russell Westbrook scored 33 points against the Clippers for his top scoring output of the month.
ABOUT THE LAKERS (5-23): Bryant was questionable with a shoulder injury but looked pretty spry and also contributed five assists and solid defense in perhaps his best all-around effort of the season. "I can still play a little bit," Bryant said afterward. "It was a great test for me to see if I could still play both ends of the floor." The next exam will be seeing how the shoulder feels Wednesday as he hopes to play against the Thunder after not playing in Saturday's recent blowout loss.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Thunder have won five straight meetings and eight of the past nine.
2. Los Angeles C Roy Hibbert is averaging just 3.7 points and 4.3 rebounds during the last three contests.
3. Oklahoma City PF Serge Ibaka has a streak of four straight double-digit scoring efforts and is averaging 16.3 points during the stretch.