Who Are These Guys?
I know the schedule says the Thunder are playing the Los Angeles Lakers tonight, I know the uniforms still say Lakers on the front but this bunch of guys wearing those unis aren't playing like any Laker team I remember.
They've lost 21 of their last 26 games!
And six straight at home!
Is Jack still bothering to even go to the games anymore?
It wasn't that long ago that the Thunder and their fans considered beating the Lakers, especially in L.A., as a milestone win. Now they need to not only win but win big or everybody will be wondering if the wheels are starting to come off.
This is OKC's last game before the All-Star break and with the Lakers poor record (just 18 wins all season) and coming off a huge win in Portland Tuesday night, it's certainly possible some Thunder players could be looking past this game to either All-Star festivities in New Orleans or just a few days off.
However, I don't think they will. I think the Thunder will take advantage of the national stage (yes this game is on TNT tonight) and clobber the Lakers.
With Indiana's stunning loss to the Mavericks last night, the Thunder now have the best record in the NBA and can improve upon it tonight.
They've already won 14 of their last 16 and I fully expect that trend to continue tonight.
Most of the Lakers problems have been because of injuries, at the start of the season most folks still had them either making the playoffs in the West or at least coming close.
But Kobe Bryant was hurt again just after returning from his Achilles injury and now they're also playing without Pau Gasol and Nick Young, Jodie Meeks and Xavier Henry. That's five of their top six scorers.
Steve Nash and Steve Blake have also missed most of the season, though Blake is back now but Nash is likely out again and Jordan Farmar has missed 19 of the last 20 games.
This is the worst stretch of basketball the Lakers have played since moving to Los Angeles from Minneapolis before the start of the 1960-61 season.
Get this, the Lakers have used 26 different starting lineups ths season, six different players have started at point guard, five at small forward and three each at power forward and center.
And remember the other night against Cleveland the Lakers had just four eligible players left on their roster when Chris Kaman fouled out and Robert Sacre picked up his sixth foul.
By rule, Sacre continued to play because you can't put just four players on the floor.
That may end up being the one interesting thing about this game tonight, will that happen again?