The Lakers are back at the Staples Center tonight looking to extend their winning streak to seven games. Going 6-0 on the road trip was epic and will go a long way for the mentality of this team and an excellent point of reference.
Keeping the good news going, the Lakers not only have the league’s best record but also hold the tie-breaker over two of the best teams in the Eastern Conference.
During Sunday’s game against the Cavaliers, with Kobe Bryant battling the flu, he still made a huge impact and sunk a turnaround fall away jumper that was sick. The story of the game was the production received from everyone and the dominance of Lamar Odom & Pau Gasol, that’s right Lamar, showed the full package dropping a season-high 28 points on the Cavs and grabbing 17 boards.
Pau Gasol came up big posting an 18 point 12 rebound effort & placed an exclamation point on the game, finishing strong with a rebound dunk following a Kobe Bryant missed shot. He has averaged 26 points & 13.8 boards since Andrew went down.
The problem has always been consistency or the lack of it with Lamar, but he has now shown he can do it and now everyone expects to see that type of energy & focused performance from him in every game. He has averaged 16.8 Points and 10.8 boards per game since Bynum’s injury.
The Thunder are a developing young team that has been competitive and on a two game winning streak including an impressive win over the Blazers. The Lakers need to come out and be the aggressors and jump on this team early and defensively impose their will on them.
The Thunder starting five are all talented players that the Lakers will need to control defensively and limit their impact on the game.
It is unknown if Adam Morrison & Shannon Brown will play tonight, Brown will help defending quick guards and both could be weapons off the bench. The trade provides a great opportunity for them.
The Lakers need to throw the ball into the low post and allow Pau Gasol & Lamar Odom to go to work. The Lakers need to recall the “four pound beat” the coaching staff drills into them, use excellent ball movement, player movement while outworking the Thunder.
The Lakers will not have a letdown and will win by double figures. The team has an advantage with their long front line and will win by controlling the tempo, glass, stopping dribble penetration and rotating out to three point shooters.
Tipoff: 7:30 PM PST
Television -
- Los Angeles: Fox Sports West 1 HD (Joel Myers & Stu Lantz)
- Oklahoma City: FS Oklahoma HD (Brian Davis & Grant Long)
Radio -
- Los Angeles: AM570 KLAC (Spero Dedes & Mychal Thompson)
- Oklahoma City: WWLS 640AM “The Sports Animal” ( Matt Pinto)
Injuries -
Lakers:
- Andrew Bynum (Knee)
Thunder:
- Nenad Krstic (Flu)
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