Youthful Thunder finally get better of Lakers

OKLAHOMA CITY (NBA.com exclusive) -- Kobe Bryant went left, couldn't find an opening, and pulled up for a 15-footer. Kevin Durant craned one of his Durantula arms, like some sort of action figure. Bryant was Blocked. Bryant could not go around Durant and could not shoot over Durant.

Other end. Bryant on Durant. Experience on youth. Playoff-tested on postseason newbie in the fourth quarter Thursday of a game in the cauldron of the Ford Center. Durant went right around him and released from 10 feet. Bucket.

Crowd eruption.

"Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.!"

Durant over Bryant on the sequence, Thunder superstar over Lakers superstar big in the tipping fourth quarter, Thunder over Lakers just enough on the night. The defending champions could not go around the young guns, they could not go around them.

The Lakers certainly cannot go through the Thunder. Three games into the best-of-seven series, Los Angeles has won by eight and three points, even as Oklahoma City failed to break 41 percent from the field either time, and lost by five. The next meeting, with the chance for the Lakers to re-assert control or the Thunder to gain a tie, is here Saturday. The ringing may be out of everyone's ears by then.

The night belonged to Oklahoma City -- the team and the place -- in every loud, historical way possible. The first NBA playoff game here. The pre-game ceremonies for Scott Brooks as Coach of the Year. Commissioner David Stern on hand for the trophy presentation and as part of his tour of the playoffs. The sea of blue shirts left on every seat in the building and worn by most during the night, often accented by white pom-poms. The noise.

"I couldn't hear myself at one point," Durant said.

"It was one of the loudest crowds that I've ever played in front of in the playoffs," Bryant said. "At the end of the third quarter, it was like the barn in Sacramento."

To have lost another close game would have been disappointing. To have lost with the capacity crowd of 18,342 blowing the lid off the building, with a football town gone basketball mad, with an 0-3 deficit on the line and the possibility of elimination at home in two nights, would have been crushing.

In what before the series had been their magical season, it was their game. It was Durant's fourth quarter.

It certainly hadn't started as his night. The league scoring champion at 21 years old went from shooting 38 percent the first two games to missing eight of his first 10 attempts and 13 of 17 through three quarters. Then came the fourth.

That was pretty historic, too. Not just because Durant was four for seven from the field, scored 12 points (six less than the Lakers starters) and grabbed three rebounds. Scoring champ, right. He's corkscrewed a lot of defenses into the ground. It happens.

It was that Bryant was two for 10... with Durant guarding him much of the time. That does not happen.

"It was a matchup that caught me by surprise," Bryant admitted. "He did a great job."

Durant estimates he was on Durant for about 10 possessions in the four regular-season meetings combined. So even the Thunder coaches didn't see it as a logical assignment. Bryant would be too quick for the taller Durant. Bryant is also much stronger than most shooting guards. Durant, a small forward, couldn't out-muscle him.

Giving it a whirl with only the entire season on the line, because going down 0-3 would have meant certain elimination, was the idea of Brooks and assistant Ron Adams, with approval from Durant. Coaches of the Year. Bryant was forcing bad shots, Durant was staying in front of him. Kobe couldn't go around or over.

"I just tried to play my hardest," Durant said. "He missed some shots, some shots he normally hits. But he missed them tonight. Luckily. I was praying they were going to bounce off the rim. I just tried to play my hardest and use my length to disturb his shot. My teammates did a great job of helping me out.

"It's a chance for me to get better. Every time I step on the floor I want to get better, and playing against the best player in the world is only going to make me better on the defensive end. I'm sure those shots he shot tonight he probably won't miss next game."

He did in this one, because he took bad shots and because Durant bothered him, then also made Bryant pay at the other end as the crowd exploded when the matchup was reversed. It was that kind of momentum in the fourth quarter for the Thunder. It was that kind of hysterical, historical night for Oklahoma City, the team and the place.

Scott Howard-Cooper has covered the NBA since 1988. You can e-mail him here and follow him on twitter.

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