OKC Thunder Blog – Page 63 – NBA Blog

Kevin Durant already sick of Spurs questions

Kevin Durant was just three minutes into his 10-minute session with reporters Wednesday when he grew a bit testy.

Of the first seven questions lobbed at him, Durant was forced to field five about the San Antonio Spurs.

And he didn’t like it. Didn’t like it one bit.

Once that fifth question came — a reasonable query about what he anticipates from the Spurs defensively against him — Durant tried to supply an answer but soon found himself swerving off script.

“I’m just going to play my game,” Durant started. “I can’t really think about how those guys are going to defend me. They’re a tough defensive group. But every question is about how the Spurs are going to come and how the Spurs are going to play. But you got to ask me how we’re going to come at them. We’re a tough team as well. We come out and play hard. We have a lot of weapons as well. I know they’re the No. 1 seed, they’re a tough group and they haven’t lost in a couple of months but I think that we bring another dimension to the table as well. And we can come out and compete.”

— Reported by Darnell Mayberry of the Oklahoman (Blog)

Police arrest OKC shooting suspects

Oklahoma City police have arrested a second suspect after at least eight people were shot following an NBA playoff game.

Police say they arrested a 17-year-old man late Tuesday in connection with the shootings in the Bricktown entertainment district the previous night…

Police also arrested 19-year-old Rodney Hill in the shootings. Both suspects face eight complaints of shooting with intent to kill. Formal charges have not been filed.

— Reported by the Associated Press

Kobe scores 42, but Thunder eliminate Lakers in Game 5

Ramon Sessions did the best he could to keep Russell Westbrook from making a high-flying dunk that would energize the Oklahoma City Thunder.

No matter.

Even with his feet flat on the ground, Westbrook found a way to get the Thunder rolling past the Los Angeles Lakers and into the Western Conference finals for the second straight year.

After Sessions committed a foul to stop him on the fast break, Westbrook flipped the ball up toward the rim and got it to go in for what would become a three-point play. Westbrook took off toward the scorer’s table, pumping his fist as the home crowd celebrated.

There was no turning back after that, and Oklahoma City pulled away for a 106-90 victory in Game 5 on Monday night to knock the Lakers out of the playoffs…

Westbrook finished with 28 points, Kevin Durant added 25 points and 10 rebounds and the two All-Stars skipped their usual rest periods to power the Thunder ahead in the second half…

Kobe Bryant scored 42 points for the Lakers and took the briefest of rest – less than 2 minutes – in the second half. It didn’t even take that long for the game, and their season, to slip away…

”I’m not fading into the shadows,” said Bryant, a five-time NBA champion with the Lakers. ”I’m not going anywhere. We’re not going anywhere.” …

Gasol then came through with a monster game – 23 points, 17 rebounds and six assists – and Steve Blake scored a playoff career-best 19 points to save the Lakers that time. Bryant didn’t get nearly as much help against the Thunder.

Gasol took 14 shots, his most of the series, but made only five to finish with 14 points and 16 rebounds. Metta World Peace scored 11 and Bynum 10.

— Reported by Jeff Latzke of the Associated Press

Andrew Bynum, Gasol’s fellow 7-footer, had only 10 points and four rebounds after getting into early foul trouble.

The Lakers’ second unit, maligned from start to finish this season, totaled five points. Jordan Hill and Devin Ebanks scored two points apiece and Steve Blake had one, Their Thunder counterparts produced 35 points.

“I know we’re asking our ‘bigs’ to do a lot, but I know for sure we could have gotten more scoring from those two guys,” Brown said of Gasol and Bynum.

“We also could have gotten more from our bench.”

Oklahoma City was too good for the Lakers when it mattered most.

The Thunder were too fast, too athletic and too much for the Lakers to handle, starting with a burst that turned an 83-77 lead going into the fourth quarter into a 93-79 edge moments later.

— Reported by Elliot Teaford of the Los Angeles Daily News

The beleaguered and beaten Lakers still lined up to give their props to the victors.

At the front of the OKC line stood three-time scoring champion Kevin Durant, who was met first by Lakers coach Mike Brown.

Thunder coach Scott Brooks and Brown then exchanged pleasantries.

James Harden and Metta World Peace, an NBA sideshow since World Peace delivered a vicious elbow on April 22, slowly worked their way through the line before they finally came face-to-face.

World Peace gave a faint smile. Whatever reaction Harden had was swallowed by his lengthy beard.

They cupped hands, shared a hug, gave each other one pat on the back and then moved down the line.

World Peace said he told Harden, “Great job” and added, “James is a really good player.”

— Reported by John Rohde of the Oklahoman

Multiple people shot in downtown OKC after Thunder game

At least eight people were shot downtown shortly after the Thunder game let out Monday night, police said.

About 11:35 p.m., shots were reportedly fired on Reno Avenue between Mickey Mantle Drive and Joe Carter Avenue, about three blocks east of Chesapeake Energy Arena.

“Preliminary reports indicate that eight people were shot and one person suffered blunt trauma, and that person was a pregnant woman,” Oklahoma City police Capt. Dexter Nelson said.

“Everything is very, very preliminary. We still don’t know the actual number of victims. We believe that one person is critical, and the other injuries are not believed to be life-threatening,” Nelson said.

— Reported by the Oklahoman

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Kobe says Pau Gasol must be more aggressive

The Los Angeles Lakers trudged off the Staples Center floor late Saturday, a single loss now separating them from season’s end, another fourth-quarter collapse once again causing their undoing. They didn’t show much poise in the locker room, either, with Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum pointing blame at others for allowing the Oklahoma City Thunder to steal their second victory in three games.

Bryant missed eight of his 10 shots in the final quarter, but shrugged off his struggles by saying his teammates’ lack of aggressiveness “forced” him to take tough shots. He also left no question which teammate deserved the most blame for the 103-100 loss in Game 4.

Pau Gasol.

Bryant faulted Gasol for not playing aggressive enough. It was also Gasol’s turnover that led to Kevin Durant making the winning 3-pointer with 13.7 seconds left.

“Pau’s got to be more assertive,” Bryant said. “He’s the guy they’re leaving [open]. When he’s catching the ball, he’s looking to pass. He’s got to be aggressive. He’s got to shoot the ball or drive the ball to the basket. He will be next game.” …

After a dominant first half by Andrew Bynum on Saturday, the Thunder began fronting the Lakers’ center with Kendrick Perkins. Bryant thought Gasol didn’t attack enough when Serge Ibaka left him to help Perkins.

“He’s looking to swing the ball too much,” Bryant said. “He’s got to take his shot.”

— Reported by Johnny Ludden of Yahoo! Sports

Thunder rally past Lakers, take 3-1 series lead

Kevin Durant stood above the 3-point line and watched the shot clock dwindle in the final seconds of Game 4. When Metta World Peace backed up slightly on defense, Durant hesitated only an instant before launching a 26-footer.

”It left my hand, (and) I was thinking, ‘If this doesn’t go in, it’s going to be a terrible shot,”’ Durant said.

The three-time scoring champ trusts his instincts and his silky-smooth jumper. Neither let him down while he and Russell Westbrook engineered yet another late comeback that pushed a frustrated Kobe Bryant to the brink.

Westbrook scored 10 of his 37 points during a stirring fourth-quarter rally, Durant added 31 points and hit that tiebreaking 3-pointer with 13.7 seconds left, and the Thunder seized control of their second-round series with a 103-100 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night.

Serge Ibaka scored 14 points and the second-seeded Thunder took a 3-1 series lead with a rally from a 13-point deficit in the final 8 minutes, moving one win away from their second straight trip to the Western Conference finals…

Oklahoma City improved to 7-1 in the postseason with a tenacious rally on the second night of back-to-back games against the Lakers and Bryant, who scored 38 points but struggled in the fourth quarter of Los Angeles’ fifth loss in seven games. After Durant put the Thunder ahead with his shot-clock-draining 3-pointer, Kobe couldn’t match it with 10 seconds left…

The Thunder finished Game 4 on a 22-8 run, punctuated by Durant’s dramatic 3-pointer and two late free throws from James Harden, who had 12 points…

Andrew Bynum had 18 points and nine rebounds for the Lakers, who led 92-81 with 7:45 to play before Westbrook went to work with a furious series of drives to the hoop. The UCLA product scored nine points in just over 2 minutes, and Kendrick Perkins capped the 17-4 run on a putback layup with 1:16 left, putting Oklahoma City up 98-96 with its first lead since the first quarter…

Bryant shot poorly in the first three games of the series, but went 10 for 18 in the first three quarters of Game 4 before managing only a 2-of-10 effort in the fourth, including a meaningless bucket at the buzzer.

— Reported by Greg Beacham of the Associated Press

Kobe Bryant lets his guard down after mismatch with Derek Fisher

After the Lakers’ 99-96 win, Bryant and Pau Gasol exchanged a few laughs about that stretch while sitting next to each other on the interview podium.

Gasol was asked by a reporter if he was surprised that Bryant scored so easily on Fisher.

Before Gasol could complete a sentence, Bryant interrupted.

“Surprised,” Bryant said incredulously. He then dropped his head down, laughing.

“Dude, come on, Fish is like 5-2,” Bryant said of the 6-foot-1 guard.

Gasol attempted once again to give a diplomatic response.

“He did a great job scoring on Derek tonight when he had the opportunity to,” Gasol said.

— Reported by Melissa Rohlin of the Los Angeles Times

Kobe leads Lakers past Thunder in 99-96 thriller

With their Game 2 collapse still fresh in their minds, the Los Angeles Lakers avoided a sequel with the only game plan they’re confident will work against the younger, faster Oklahoma City Thunder.

They got slow. They got into the paint. And they got to the free-throw line 42 times, incredibly making all but one of those shots.

Kobe Bryant knows it isn’t pretty. He also knows it’s probably the only way the Lakers can pull the high-flying Thunder down to their level.

Bryant scored 14 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter, and the Lakers rallied late for a 99-96 victory in Game 3 on Friday night, cutting the Thunder’s second-round series lead to 2-1…

The Lakers were close to a historically insurmountable playoff deficit when the Thunder went ahead 92-87 with 3 minutes left. Instead, they finished on a 12-4 run, scoring six points on free throws in the final 33 seconds and earning the chance to even the series in Game 4 on Saturday night…

”We continued to work, even when they got the lead a couple of times in the fourth quarter,” said Pau Gasol, who had 12 points, 11 rebounds and six assists…

Durant scored 31 points before missing his last shot for Oklahoma City, which seemed poised to move to the brink of its second straight trip to the Western Conference finals. Instead, the Thunder lost for the first time in the postseason – but they didn’t exactly appear shaken by their late struggles…

Westbrook and James Harden scored 21 points apiece for the Thunder, who couldn’t match the Lakers’ late-game execution after soundly out-executing the Lakers in Game 2…

Bynum had 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Lakers, who got 12 points apiece from Ramon Sessions and Steve Blake. The Lakers still got uncomfortably close to an 0-3 deficit, which has never been overcome in NBA history.

— Reported by the Associated Press

Thunder rally to edge Lakers, take 2-0 lead

Even down late, the Oklahoma City Thunder are showing that they are never out.

Kevin Durant scored 22 points and rattled in the go-ahead basket on a baseline runner with 18 seconds left, and the Thunder scored the final nine points to rally for a 77-75 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals Wednesday night.

Oklahoma City trailed by seven with 2 minutes left before surging back with a series of defensive stops by its stars to claw back from that deficit in the closing stages of a game for the second time this postseason. The Thunder were also seven down with 2 1/2 minutes left in Game 1 against defending NBA champion Dallas in the first round.

”They won’t quit. That’s not in their DNA,” coach Scott Brooks said. ”They’re not wired that way and if they were, they wouldn’t be here. We’re not going to win every game but we’re going to fight to the last second of the game and we did that tonight.

”If we would have gotten down on ourselves with 2 minutes to go, we would have lost by 12 and we would go to L.A. 1-1.”

— Reported by Jeff Latzke of the Associated Press

But what Oklahoma City did in those final 120 seconds was nothing short of sensational — especially given the style of play this ballgame had been in the first 46 minutes.

The Thunder stormed back from a late seven-point deficit to steal a 77-75 win in Game 2 on Wednesday night inside Chesapeake Energy Arena. With the narrow victory, the Thunder preserved home-court advantage and took a 2-0 series lead as this Western Conference semifinal now shifts to Los Angeles for Games 3 and 4.

Maybe by the time the team lands in L.A., the Thunder will have regained a morsel of its offensive rhythm from Game 1.

— Reported by Darnell Mayberry of the Oklahoman

The Thunder hounded Kobe Bryant into a miserable night, nine of 25 shooting. Kobe credited the Thunder defense for pushing him too far from the basket, sometimes starting out 25 feet away.

The Thunder also made Andrew Bynum labor for his 20 points.

The Thunder MVP was Kendrick Perkins. Gran Torino, playing with that sore hip, bodied and bullied Bynum into an 8-of-19 shooting night.

— Reported by Berry Tramel of the Oklahoman

The Lakers didn’t survive the late-game mistakes by Kobe Bryant and Steve Blake. They had back-to-back turnovers in the final stretch, with Bryant missing two shots and Blake the potential winning 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds left.

Bryant said his struggles stemmed from Oklahoma City’s defense pushing him too far from the basket, leaving him “trying to create something — and it just didn’t work out.” …

But Bryant finished with 20 points on 9-of-25 shooting and missed all six of his 3-point shots. Lakers center Andrew Bynum had 20 points and nine rebounds but could be seen laughing on the court on separate occasions in the final seconds.

— Reported by Kevin Ding of the OC Register

Thunder clobber Lakers 119-90 in Game 1

Russell Westbrook had 27 points and nine assists, Kevin Durant added 25 points and the Oklahoma City Thunder blasted the weary Los Angeles Lakers 119-90 on Monday night in the opening game of the Western Conference semifinals.

The Thunder took a 15-point halftime lead, then opened the third quarter with a 15-2 blitz filled with crowd-pleasing 3-pointers and dunks.

Oklahoma City led by as many as 35 points, getting a measure of vengeance for the elbow Metta World Peace delivered to the head of the Thunder’s James Harden three weeks earlier – and without needing dirty tactics to do it.

Thunder starting center Kendrick Perkins limped off after aggravating a hip injury from the first round.

Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum scored 20 points each for the Lakers and Bynum had 14 rebounds.

The Thunder committed a franchise-record four turnovers…

Both coaches started going to their benches with 8 1/2 minutes left, and Los Angeles reserve Devin Ebanks ended up getting ejected with 2:18 to play after walking up to a scrum for the ball after the whistle. Official Greg Willard said at the scorer’s table that he was ejected for ”what he said” in drawing a technical foul…

If the Lakers’ legs were weary, it showed most on the defensive end. Oklahoma City shot 53 percent and the league’s most turnover-prone team committed only one – Harden’s failed alley-oop pass for Durant that banged off the glass and was grabbed by World Peace – while building a 59-44 halftime lead.

— Reported by Jeff Latzke of the Associated Press