THE NBJ-&-ERIN BLOG

Westbrook happened. Last season, Russell just seemed to let the team down more than a fair share of the time in the playoffs. His shots were off, and he wasn't a team player.

Tonight I was very very frustrated. This man that has improved so so much has just let it all fall apart. The shots he did make were very risky and led to rebounds that allowed the old pack of dinosaurs to score. Westbrook thinks he can save the day once OKC gets down, but what he really needs to do is trust his teammates and play as one and not Westbrook and the Thunder. OKC needed to win this game tonight, and I hope that this loss hasn't ruined their chances at the Finals.

Right now, I'm just shaking my head at Westbrook and that's really all I can say. Overall OKC played well, but when Ginobili was in the game he just destroyed them. I think OKC just needs to have a better plan of defense and for offense just drive it to the hole and MAKE the Spurs foul. This home game will be a real challenge, but OKC has it. I can feel it.

Let's talk about this game. The Thunder need to step up their defense down in the paint if they expect to win this game. Also, they need to get some fouls and keep the Spurs from getting rebounds and too many unnecessary turnovers. Coach Brooks need keep Westbrook on lock and prevent any crazy shots that Westbrook takes outside the paint.

The Spurs have a nice looking team.  I know they're old, but they know how to hold down the court and take the open spots to shoot inside the paint. Timmy Duncan and Tony Parker are vital to this team, but Sunday night they weren't shooting well at the free throw line. I'm not saying that OKC needs to foul up the Spurs, but they definitely need to see how the Spurs are feeling free throw wise in case they get in a bind.

OKC needs to win this game because if not this may be a sweep in the Western Conference Finals. If they stay consistent, make shots, and keep a lead I think the Thunder have this game even with Popovich's "Nasty".

Turns out I was dead wrong when I predicted the Lakers would win last night against the "Wade-less Heatles". They came up short 87-98, but the 11-point difference doesn't tell the whole story. It was less competitive than that. (The Heat led by 23 points at one point). The Lakers got dominated pretty much the entire night, or at least until about 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter when it didn't matter.

LeBron had 31-8-8 even with the "flu-like symptoms". Kobe had 24, but only 10 came in the 1st three quarters. (After all those 40-point games, he's only had 38 points in the last 2). Gasol had a season high 26 points and Bynum had 15 points and 12 rebounds.

Eddy Curry played for the 1st time since 2009 and even had 6 points and 3 rebounds in 6 minutes.

The Lakers are now 1-5 on the road for the year...No bueno.

They have the 2nd game of this Florida trip tonight in Orlando against Dwight Howard and the Magic. Hopefully they can leave with a win AND take Dwight Howard with them, leaving behind Derrick Fisher and Metta World Peace because they aren't playing well at all. World Peace is 4-31 (12.9%) from 3 this year. This is one time where I can say I don't want world peace. And Fisher, he's definitely not wearing the miles well. The threes aren't falling (5-21, 20.8%), and he's having trouble defending the quick point guards who like to penetrate. In the games the Lakers have lost, the opposing team has had one of these point guards. Major problem.

The Lakers have looked pretty good against the mediocre to low-level teams, and I guess I read to much into those games. Last night they played a true competitor and were beaten thoroughly even without one of the Heats' main weapons. As of now, I'm looking optimistically at a 5 seed, but there is the chance that they'll make a move and be more competitive against better teams.

At 7:00 I'll be tuned in to TNT. There's a game coming on with two pretty decent basketball players facing off. One named LeBron, the other, Kobe. No last names are necessary because they're known worldwide on a first name basis. Yeah, they're pretty good.

The Lakers (10-5) face off against the Heat (9-4) tonight in Miami. Both teams are fresh off of wins but neither team is truly "fresh". The Lakers are dealing with Kobe's wrist injury but it's affecting his dribbling and ball-handling much more than his shot. The Heat, on the other hand, will be without both Dwyane Wade and LeBron, who missed shootaround because of "flu-like symptoms", or as normal people call it, a cold.

*LeBron James and his teams are 9-2 against the Lakers.

Kobe is leading the league in scoring at 30.8 PPG, and LeBron is 2nd with 29.8 PPG.

I give the Lakers the edge tonight because the Heat will be without Wade again. They are 4-0 without him, but against the Spurs the other night they weren't impressive until LeBron took over in the 3rd quarter to get them going. Tonight, if that happens, I think Kobe will try to, and succeed in matching him bucket for bucket.

Hold on, hold on, hold on...21-39? This is RIDICULOUS! Taking 39 shots is a little excessive, don't you guys think? But maybe not, since Dwight had no choice. This is because these were foul shots. Yes, free-throws. 39 of them. Now he made 21, which sounds like a lot, but out of 39, that's only 54%. 39 is the record for FTA's in a game, but the record for free-throws made is 28. He definitely had a chance to get this record with all the attempts, (he would've only had to shoot 75%), but his free-throw shooting "woes" kept him from it.

He finished with 45 points, 23 rebounds, 4 steals, and 2 blocks. (GET THIS GUY IN A LAKERS JERSEY).

Also, in Milwaukee, the Pistons and Bucks combined to go 41-41 from the free-throw line, another record. I guess they put in a little extra work from the charity stripe in shootaround. (But had Howard been fouled one more time, he would've matched the total of both teams combined. Just a little added perspective).

If fouling Howard can allow you to only give up 1 point, opposed to not fouling and likely giving up a bucket for 2, would you buy into the "Hack-A-Howard" technique?

Kobe went for his 3rd 40-point performance in as many games last night. This bumps his average up to 31.2, good for number one in the league. This somewhat feels like 05-06, but not quite. Kobe averaged 35 PPG, and Smush Parker was his starting point guard. So he has a lot more help and doesn't necessarily HAVE to score 40 points a night, but it sure is fun to watch.

The Lakers are now 9-4, and on a 5-game win streak. And McRoberts is now back from injury. They have a tough matchup tonight against the other LA squad who are 5-3, and coming off of a win against the Heat. Can Kobe score 40 again tonight and lead them to another win? I wouldn't put it past him. Number 6/4-in-a-row coming up tonight.

The Miami Heat have cooled off...A lot. After starting off 8-1, and impressing everyone and having people handing them the trophy (including me), they've lost 3 straight and 2 of the 3 in OT. They fell to the Warriors in overtime WITHOUT Steph Curry, then lost to the Clippers in OT before giving up 117 and losing by 13 to the Nuggets. The only understandable loss of the three is the loss to the Clippers in LA. Sure, they were fresh off injuries, but I still don't see how they lose to the Warriors w/out Curry, and the Nuggets w/ everybody. Puzzling. The Big 2.5 are still playing well though, which is why I wouldn't be too worried. I wouldn't be surprised if they run off another 5 game streak or so very soon either. So don't worry too much Heatles fans, they'll be alright.

Did y'all see Kobe ballin' out last night? He shot just over 26% in the previous two games, so I guess he felt like he had something to prove. That he did. He put up 37 points on 14-29 shooting and also had 8 rebounds, 6 assists, AND only 2 turnovers in the Lakers' 108-99 win over the Houston Rockets.

(Bynum had a BIG game also w/ 21 points, 22 rebounds, and 3 blocks). Nice game big fella. Nice to have him back.

It looks like my team couldn't pull it out with another win to go 6-0. I'm not real sure what happened between now and the last game but it seems like my team was off. The only consistent shooter making the points was Harden and KD. I'm shocked to see that it wasn't even a close game. 13 points?! I'm still one of the biggest Thunder fans over here but I mean come on!! Shots were going everywhere. Nothing seemed to go in except for the Mavs. It didn't help that Dirk was on his A-Game tonight. He kept sinking shots like it was this time last year. Honestly I think we could have done better. We should have done better, but the Mavs seem to be building up that team spirit again even though they don't have the players they had last year. Shawn Marion was putting up shots against the Thunder (17 points to be exact) which is a surprise to me because last year it seemed like Marion had once and a blue moon shot that didn't come easy. Dirk was on his level, but that's nothing unheard of.

It seemed like the Thunder were off to a good start in the beginning when I was listening on the radio but I'm not sure what happened in between there and the end of the game. Durant missed 3 of his threes and Westbrook both of his threes. KD with 27 points, not bad. Harden with 16. Westbrook got 18 points. This astounds me; some days Westbrook misses the majority of his shots and then he can come back in a game we lose with 18 points? I don't understand it.

Dallas played some good defense in the 2nd and 3rd quarters looking like the ex-champs they are. I'm not looking forward to the West Conference right now if my team's looking like this. I hope they fix these problems before conference time and win tomorrow if not I'm going to be eating my words about this season.