Thunder Loss to Lakers a Troubling Sign?
The Oklahoma City Thunder lost to the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday in Los Angeles 114-110. That doesn’t sound shocking at first After all, the Lakers are one of the greatest franchises in sports history. But this year’s Lakers are a shell of their former selves and have no business beating a team contending for the NBA Championship.
This year’s Lakers team is 22-42 even after beating the Thunder. They are less than a week removed from the worst loss in their franchise history, a 48 point shellacking to the team once known as “little brother”, the Los Angeles Clippers. The Lakers then gave up 134 to the Denver Nuggets before beating the Thunder who have now lost five of ten and are now the #2 seed in the Western Conference, a half game behind the San Antonio Spurs.
As we get close to the post season, the teams thought all year to be the front runners in the chase for a championship, the Thunder, Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers are now stumbling while the hottest teams are now the Clippers, the Chicago Bulls, the Spurs and the Houston Rockets.
There is still over a month left in the regular season and teams like the Thunder can flip a switch and run the table once the playoffs start. They have the talent. But this has to give them a reason for concern. In the recent weeks, they have lost to some really bad teams. They lost to the Orlando Magic, the Cleveland Cavaliers and now the Lakers in the last month. On Tuesday the Rockets will come to OKC and then on Thursday the Lakers will visit. This would be a great time for the Thunder to make a statement that they are the team to beat in the Western Conference. They need to beat the Rockets and then put a good beat down on the Lakers to show Sunday was just one of those flukey games.
The last thing the Thunder wants going into April is the other tough teams in the west thinking they might be vulnerable. There are a lot of good teams in the West that could really be a problem if they sense blood in the water. Even a team that could face the Thunder in the first round such as the Dallas Mavericks or Portland Trail Blazers has plenty of talent to upset them and send them to a stunning early exit.
Is this an overreaction? After all, the Lakers are an NBA team with highly paid professional players. That is true, but this is not an isolated incident from OKC. The Lakers have also in recent days lost to the Thunder by four points on Feb 13th. After two games with the lowly Lakers and the Magic and Cavs losses, this is starting to look like a trend. The Thunder had better get things straightened out quickly.
