Thunder-Lakers Preview

By JEFF BARTL
Posted Apr 21 2012 4:40PM

Kobe Bryant said he's feeling no effects from his injured shin after returning to the Los Angeles Lakers' lineup.

Hosting Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder should provide another tough test.

Los Angeles tries to avoid a season sweep to Oklahoma City on Sunday in a matchup of teams fighting for playoff position toward the top of the Western Conference.

The Lakers went 5-2 without Bryant in the lineup as he nursed a bruised left shin, but he came back Friday and the team suffered its most lopsided loss of the season in a 121-97 defeat at San Antonio.

Bryant got off to a slow start but shot 5 of 6 from the field in the second half, when he scored 11 of his 18 points.

"I feel great and I feel healthy," Bryant said. "I'm back now. I feel fresh and I'm back to 100 percent."

Andrew Bynum scored 17 points - he averaged 26.3 in the previous four games - and had a season-low two rebounds. Pau Gasol added 11 points and eight boards after averaging 21.1 and 10.1, respectively, over his previous seven games.

The Lakers (40-24) are one-half game ahead of the Los Angeles Clippers for the Pacific Division lead and the West's third seed, but Bynum isn't worried about where they finish heading into the postseason.

"If we want to keep the third spot we have to win. If not, then we will be fourth," Bynum said. "The way playoff basketball is with a seven-game series, it doesn't matter where we are. We play the same."

Oklahoma City (46-17) trails San Antonio by one-half game for the conference's top seed and has won both meetings with the Lakers. The Thunder haven't swept this season series since taking all four matchups in 2000-01 when they were the Seattle SuperSonics.

The Thunder won 100-85 behind Durant's 33 points on Feb. 23 and 102-93 in Los Angeles on March 29 as Russell Westbrook scored 36.

Bryant struggled in both contests, shooting a combined 28.6 percent (14 of 49) as he averaged 23.5 points.

He's averaging 27.9 this season and maintains a slight lead over Durant (27.8) as he tries to end the Oklahoma City superstar's two-year reign as league scoring champion.

Durant had 29 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists in Friday's 103-92 win over Sacramento.

"Kevin was solid, that was a solid game, he filled out the stat sheet on just about every positive," coach Scott Brooks told the team's official website. "He rebounded, he passed and he made his teammates get good looks.

"He has to continue to focus on making his teammates look better and get better and make them get easier shots and he did that tonight."

Kendrick Perkins added 10 points and seven rebounds for the Thunder, winners of six of eight since a season-worst three-game losing streak.

"We just have to make sure we get our rest," Perkins said. "We're going to L.A. for business and not fun, so we have to make sure we take care of our legs, our bodies and we'll be ready."

In 22 head-to-head matchups - 16 in the regular season and six in the postseason - Bryant is averaging 26.4 points with Durant averaging 25.0. The Lakers have won 16 of those contests, including a 2010 playoff series.

Lakers outlast Thunder 114-106 in double OT

By GREG BEACHAM
Posted Apr 22 2012 10:28PM

LOS ANGELES (AP) Metta World Peace was subdued and contrite in the Los Angeles Lakers' locker room, apologizing to Oklahoma City's James Harden for throwing the elbow that sent them both to the locker room in the second quarter.

They both missed a beauty of a game that could echo into the postseason for two division leaders.

Kobe Bryant scored six of his 26 points in the second overtime alongside an unorthodox Lakers lineup, and Los Angeles rallied from an 18-point deficit in the second half for a 114-106 victory over the Thunder on Sunday.

Pau Gasol had 20 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists for the Lakers, who made an impressive comeback in their regular-season home finale against off-target Thunder stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, who combined to miss 42 of their 56 shots. Los Angeles' rally stunned the Thunder and set an early tone for their possible second-round playoff matchup.

"It's not so much that we beat Oklahoma, but how we did it," said Bryant, who shook off his own woeful shooting game with two key 3-pointers late in regulation. "In the playoffs, particularly if you don't have home-court advantage, you're going to have games like this. We have to have the poise and the confidence to just keep chipping away."

Yet everything after halftime was colored by the drama and violence that occurred 1:37 before the break.

World Peace had just dunked over Durant and Serge Ibaka on a fast break and was headed back upcourt when he ran into Harden. While pounding his chest with his right arm, World Peace raised his left elbow over Harden's shoulder and cleanly hit Harden in the back of the skull.

Harden dropped to the court and stayed down for about a minute before heading to the locker room. Ibaka and other Thunder players challenged World Peace, but were kept apart, and World Peace was ejected after officials reviewed the tape.

"I got real emotional and excited, and it was unfortunate that James had to get hit with the unintentional elbow," said World Peace, who had scored 12 points and played solid defense on Durant. "I hope he's OK. Oklahoma, they're playing for a championship this year. I apologize to the Thunder and James Harden. It was just unfortunate."

The Thunder didn't immediately announce whether Harden, who scored 14 points, had a concussion. Bryant and other Lakers acknowledged World Peace is likely to face a multigame suspension with just one game left in their regular season.

"I'm just happy my teammate is all right," said Durant, who scored 35 points on 11-for-34 shooting. "It was a bad play. Hopefully Ron didn't do it intentionally or have any malicious intentions on that. We've got to move past that."

Ibaka had 18 points and 14 rebounds for the Thunder, who led by 11 points with 4 minutes left in regulation. Westbrook had 14 points on 3-for-22 shooting and 10 assists as Oklahoma City fell 1 1/2 games behind San Antonio atop the Western Conference with just its third loss in nine games.

Despite the loss, Durant finally passed Bryant in the race for both superstars' third NBA scoring title. Durant, the two-time defending scoring champion, is averaging 27.906 points with two to play, while Bryant - the NBA's top scorer for nearly the entire regular season - slipped back into second at 27.862 points per game with just one game left.

The Lakers rallied with seldom-used Devin Ebanks and Jordan Hill alongside Bryant, Gasol and backup point guard Steve Blake, who hit three key 3-pointers. Ebanks had eight points and two key defensive plays in the final minute, while Hill had 14 points and a career high-tying 15 rebounds.

"Being down double digits against a very good team, we could have folded easily," Lakers coach Mike Brown said. "This might have been our best team win of the year."

Bryant struggled through the first three quarters of his first home game since April 6 before coming alive down the stretch during Los Angeles' rally. Bryant then hit the tiebreaking fall-away jumper with 52 seconds left in the second overtime, followed by two free throws as the Lakers hung on.

Even with Harden unavailable to provide his usual offensive boost, the Thunder could only blame themselves for a 4-for-19 fourth quarter with four turnovers, followed by a 5-for-17 effort in the two overtime periods.

"I believe in Kevin, I believe in Russell, I believe in what our guys do," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "Some nights they're not going to fall for you, but if the execution is good and the shots are good, you have to live with the results."

World Peace was making major contributions to the Lakers on both ends of the court before his ejection for yet another unpredictable outburst in the erstwhile Ron Artest's long history of misbehavior.

World Peace, who changed his name last year, has been mostly well-behaved during his three seasons with the Lakers, even winning an award as the NBA's citizen of the year for his extensive charity work around mental-health issues. Yet he'll always be most famous for his 86-game suspension for participating in the brawl in the Palace of Auburn Hills stands while playing for Indiana in November 2004.

The Lakers pulled within one point on World Peace's dunk, but fell apart after the ejection, managing just 14 points in the next 14 minutes.

NOTES: The Lakers missed their first eight 3-pointers before Blake's 3 with 4:36 to play. ... Bryant wore no support on his knees, and Lakers point guard Ramon Sessions ditched the harness he has worn for several games on his sprained left shoulder. ... Derek Fisher got another loud ovation from his longtime Lakers fans when he checked in for the Thunder. The veteran point guard had five points. ... Jack Nicholson celebrated his 75th birthday in his usual courtside seat. Other fans near courtside included Denzel Washington, Will Ferrell, Mark Harmon, Ashton Kutcher, Steven Spielberg, Jerry Ferrara and Flea.

Notebook: Lakers 114, Thunder 106

Posted Sunday April 22, 2012 8:16PM

By Dan Arritt, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: Down by 17 points with 10 1/2 minutes remaining in an emotionally charged game Sunday afternoon against the visiting Thunder, it appeared the Lakers' hold on the Pacific Division lead was about to slip away. But behind a burst from Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and a supporting cast of unlikely reserves, the Lakers stormed back to win in double overtime, 114-106, at Staples Center.

QUOTABLE: "Kobe's mental toughness fed off into the rest of the group,"
-- Lakers head coach Mike Brown.

THE STAT: Bryant, in just his second game back after missing seven games with a bruised left shin, was 3-for-14 from the field after three quarters and had relinquished his NBA scoring lead to Oklahoma City forward Kevin Durant. But Bryant shot 6-for-12 the rest of the way to finish with 26 points. Durant scored 35 points, but shot just 5-for-19 after the third quarter. Durant did bump his scoring average up to 27.90 points, slightly ahead of Bryant's 27.86

TURNING POINT: Following the monumental comeback and then blowing a four-point lead midway through the first overtime, the Lakers took the lead for good on a pull-up 16-footer by Bryant with 52 seconds remaining. Devin Ebanks then came up with the first of two steals in the final minute, leading to two free throws on the other end for Bryant. That pushed the lead to four and the Thunder never got it back to a one-possession game.

HOT: Jordan Hill came to the L.A. in the trade that sent popular point guard Derek Fisher to Houston, and then to Oklahoma City. Hill played just 18 minutes in the previous 21 games with the Lakers, but was surprisingly sent out to start the second quarter. He was solid in his first run, producing six points and four rebounds in a little under nine minutes, and even better down the stretch, playing all of the fourth quarter and the overtimes in place of Andrew Bynum. Hill finished with 14 points, a career-high 15 rebounds and three blocked shots, all while matching his career-high of 35 minutes.

NOT: Oklahoma City point guard Russell Westbrook probably wouldn't mind avoiding either the Lakers or Clippers in the playoffs, mostly because of his recent struggles inside Staples Center. Westbrook shot 3-for-22 from the field -- the most field goals he has missed in his four-year NBA career -- and scored 14 points. Six days earlier, he shot 4-for-16 and scored nine points in a 92-77 loss to the Clippers at Staples Center. The Thunder shot a season-low 37.5 percent from the floor in that game, but bettered that by shooting 36.6 against the Lakers.

GOOD MOVE: Brown stuck with the players who led the fourth-quarter comeback, playing Bryant and Gasol with Hill, Ebanks and Steve Blake during the entire overtime periods. That left Bynum and starting point guard Ramon Sessions watching all the excitement from the bench. Hill contributed with his rebounding and inside presence, Ebanks with his defense on Durant and Blake hit three big 3-pointers down the stretch to key the comeback.

BAD MOVE: Lakers small forward Metta World Peace didn't live up to his new name and could be missing some time after elbowing James Harden in the head late in the second quarter while celebrating a fast-break dunk. World Peace claimed the elbow was inadvertent, but replays indicated otherwise. World Peace received a flagrant-2 foul and was ejected. Harden, who leads NBA reserves in scoring at 16.9 points, went to the locker room and didn't return.

QUOTABLE II: "I hope that he's OK and I apologize to the Thunder and to James Harden. You know, it was such a great game and it was unfortunate so much emotion was going on at that time."
-- World Peace.

NOTABLE: Gasol came up one assist short of his sixth career triple-double, finishing with 20 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists. The Lakers improved to 3-0 this season when six players score in double figures ... Thunder forward Serge Ibaka matched his career high with nine field goals. He finished with 18 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocked shots. The Thunder dropped to 44-16 when holding their opponent to under 50 percent from the floor.

UP NEXT: For the Lakers, Thursday @ Sacramento. For the Thunder, Tuesday vs. Sacramento, Thursday vs. Denver.

• Thunder: Jackson, Maynor
• Lakers: Eyenga

• Thunder: --
• Lakers: --

• Lead Changes: 11
• Times Tied: 12

• Arena: Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA
• Officials: #57 Greg Willard, #50 Olandis Poole, #59 Gary Zielinski
• Attendance: 18997
• Duration: 3:10