Los Angeles, CA -
The Oklahoma City Thunder look to take a three-games-to-none advantage in their best-of-seven series with the Los Angeles Lakers tonight in a game that won't tip-off until after 9:30 p.m.
The Thunder dominated game one, winning by 29 points. Then, Oklahoma City rallied from a seven-point deficit with two minutes to play in game two to demoralize the Lakers.
Los Angeles' presence inside seemed to cause problems for the Thunder through 46 minutes, limiting Oklahoma City -- the highest scoring team at home this season -- to just 68 points. But it was in the game's final two minutes that it all fell apart for L.A.
James Harden started it off with a driving lay-up with 1:59 to play. Then, just seconds later, Kobe Bryant's lazy lob pass was picked off by Kevin Durant, whose dunk brought the Thunder within three points.
Harden partially blocked Bryant's jumper attempt, then added another lay-up with just under a minute to play to cut the gap to one point. After Bryant missed a 3-point attempt, Durant drove baseline and his floating jumper rolled around the rim and in with 18 seconds to play to put OKC on top.
The Lakers had a chance when Steve Blake was given a wide open three-point attempt with four seconds left, but the ball clanged off the iron and the Thunder captured the win.
The series shifts to Los Angeles for Game 3 tonight and a quick turnaround for Game 4 on Saturday. A win for the Thunder Friday night would pretty much clinch the series as no team in NBA history has ever come back to win a playoff series after falling behind 3-0. In fact, only three have even come back to tie the series.
Oklahoma City split two games at Staples Center in the regular season, winning 102-93 on March 29th, then falling 114-106 in overtime on April 22nd in a game the Thunder led by as many as 17 points in the fourth quarter.
The Lakers were tied with Oklahoma City for the second-best home record in the Western Conference this season, going 26-and-7 at Staples Center. Only top-seed San Antonio (28-5) was better.
Tonight's game can be seen on TNT.
