Okafor shutting down the paint and makes the midrange jumper to end the half. I can't recall if Kobe has ever had a scoreless half in a playoff game before..
Kobe is cruising and despite being held scoreless in the 1st half the lakers are down only 4, this show how deep the lakers are. Kobe will turn it on in the second half.
trust me, he's not cruising. he tried to turn it on around 5 minutes in the 2nd quarter and still couldn't score. kobe is definitely declining. but if his J is on, he can still take over a game.
Or their competition. To me the west is there for the taking. I don't see the lakers coming out of the west. It's either going to be the Thunder, The Grizzlies or the Trailblazers. The lakers are going to have to show me a lot more before I believe that they can beat any of these teams.
they'll come out of the west. the thunder are their only challenge simply b/c they have the superstars to take over games. the lakers just refuse to go inside all the time in this game. their perimeter players can be quite stubborn. pau and bynum have combined for a whopping 12 shot attempts only between them. that's terrible.
The lakers have experience on their side. But I don't believe that they have the same level of hunger as these other teams, and that will be the difference. The lakers can't just turn it on like they think they can. The grizzlies might be at a disadvantage with the thunder simply because of home court advantage. But if the thunder thinks that Durant and Westbrook will be enough to win the series with the grizz, they got another thing coming. The grizzlies have the size advantage and the defense to man up and take away one of the two of those guys. I'd call the series an even one because of the thunders home court advantage. Otherwise I'd give it to the grizzlies, no homer.
