Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports

Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Smith has been mentioned as a potential trade candidate all season long.

The trade deadline is Feb. 21 and it looks like there is a good chance to Hawks will trade Smith.

Expectations are growing that the Hawks will trade forward Josh Smith, a source said. Smith has averaged 17 points, 8.6 rebounds. 4.7 assists and 2.1 blocks this month despite the trade speculation.

Via Yahoo! Sports

The most popular Josh Smith trade rumors has sent him to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Pau Gasol. Gasol has been coming off the bench recently for the Lakers and isn’t thrilled with that role.

The Hawks just lost Lou Williams for the year and GM Danny Ferry still has the future in mind when it comes to clearing cap space and hasn’t been the biggest Smith supporter either.

There has been some thought that the Oklahoma City Thunder should try and go after Smith too. They could maybe buy low on him at this point and Smith would be a great fit to the already versatile Thunder roster.

The Thunder could package Kendrick Perkins, Jeremy Lamb and Eric Maynor for Smith. Smith is making $13 million this season in the last year of his contract.

The big issue is that Smith recently said he believed he was a max player. It would be impossible for the Thunder to re-sign Smith to a max extension unless they included Serge Ibaka in the trade.

Renting Smith for the rest of the season for Perkins would be a decent deal for the Thunder too though. There is still a chance the Thunder will amnesty Perkins down the road and acquiring Smith would really improve the Thunder’s chances at an NBA title this season.

The reality is that the Thunder would have to absolutely be in love with Smith to consider trading for him. They would have to choose Smith over Ibaka and they would never do that so soon after signing Ibaka to an extension.

A Smith trade could still greatly affect the Thunder even if he isn’t traded to them. Smith on the Lakers with Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard and Steve Nash could really improve that roster and turn the Lakers into a potential sleeper in the Western Conference.

Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Lakers are 18-25 on the season and currently out of the playoff picture in the Western Conference.

The Lakers have been unable to take advantage of their best four players under first year head coach Mike D’Antoni.

D’Antoni has made the decision to bring former perennial All-Star Pau Gasol off the bench because in his offense, Gasol and Dwight Howard aren’t playing well together. Howard has had one of his worst seasons in years too and Steve Nash is in the same boat.

The Lakers need to change something and that could come in the form of a trade. Amazingly, this season is not totally lost yet as they are only 4.5 games behind the Houston Rockets for the 8th seed in the Western Conference.

ESPN’s Marc Stein is reporting that multiple teams are speculating that the Lakers could engage in a 3-team trade to bring Rudy Gay to LA. The potential 3-team deal would send Gasol to the Boston Celtics and Paul Pierce to the Memphis Grizzlies.

Gasol and Gay have been tied to trade rumors virtually all season. The Grizzlies thought they were going to need to save money to avoid future luxury tax implications by getting rid of Gay but in light of their most recent trade, now may not have to.

Pierce has been linked to only some trade rumors and with the Celtics starting to really struggle, we will see his name thrown out there more and more.

This would be a gigantic trade swapping three former alpha dogs of their teams midway through the season. Other names would likely be involved but these three would be the biggest part of the trade.

Bringing Gay in for Gasol isn’t something that will drastically help the Lakers over night. Gay would be a better fit under D’Antoni and allow for the small lineups to continue with Earl Clark at the four but it won’t make the Lakers title contenders again.

The trade deadline is Thursday, Feb. 21.

Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

Dwight Howard made it very clear last summer which team he wanted to play for this season. It wasn’t the Los Angeles Lakers where he is now but the Brooklyn Nets.

A deal could not be made between the Orlando Magic and Nets at that time and all hope of Howard going to Brooklyn faded. In stepped the Lakers and we all know that hasn’t worked out too well this season.

According to Jarrod Rudolph of RealGM, the Nets are preparing to pursue Howard in a trade again.

According to sources, King was planning to contact the Minnesota Timberwolves in order to gauge their interest in a three-team trade that would send Kevin Love to the Lakers, Brook Lopez to the Timberwolves and Dwight Howard to the Nets. Other small pieces would need to be included, but the proposed trade was thought to be intriguing enough to start conversations in the Lakers front office that would force them to deal with Howard earlier than planned.

That idea, however, was shelved when Love was sidelined 8-10 weeks with a broken hand. The Nets believed the Lakers would be interested in Love, but not an injured Love, even if they’re facing missing the playoffs, according to sources.

King will still look around for an attractive piece for the Lakers, but won’t make getting Howard as big a priority as last season, according to sources. But he will continue to watch the Lakers and explore intriguing trade options, sources said.

The hypothetical 3-team trade with Minnesota seems pretty unlikely considering the Timberwolves would be giving up Kevin Love and only receiving Brook Lopez in return.

The Lakers are definitely very likely to trade someone before the deadline this season whether that be Howard or Pau Gasol. At 17-24 on the year, playoffs are extremely unlikely and the current makeup of the Lakers is clearly not working.

Gasol has been benched by Mike D’Antoni who claims the Lakers work better on both ends of the floor with a smaller lineup. He is essentially being wasted on the bench playing less than 30 minutes per game which makes him an ideal candidate to be traded.

There have been rumors linking possible Gasol trades with the Atlanta Hawks for Josh Smith, a move that could work for both teams. The Lakers are discussing trade possibilities involving Gasol but have said they do not want to take on a long-term contract in exchange for him because they want to have their books cleared in 2014 so they can chase after a big name free agent.

But maybe trading Howard would make more sense for the Lakers. The dynamic between Howard and Kobe Bryant has been awkward at best with Kobe most recently coming out and talking about how much he has tried to help Dwight. Kobe also doesn’t like the new situation of Gasol coming off the bench.

Howard doesn’t like the current set up saying that the Lakers need to play more inside-out on offense and that he needs more touches.

The only thing for certain right now is that the Lakers are a mess. The playoffs aren’t happening this season unless something drastically changes. Trading Howard or Gsaol would be drastic and at this time, probably a good move for the Lakers no matter what they get in return.

Ibaka played just 15.1 minutes per game and averaged 8.0 points per game. After the Olympics, Ibaka said that he wasn’t sure if he would continue playing for Spain in the future.

Pau Gasol wants Ibaka to be a part of Spain’s basketball future.

“We hope Serge can be part of the national team for many years,” Gasol told the Los Angeles Times. “He brings so many special unique set of skills to the table.

“We were very talented and we were very deep. There’s so many other great players. Some days you’ll play a little more. Some days you’ll play better. Some days you won’t. But at the end of the day, what matters is the team success. He’s only 22 or 23. He has many years ahead of him. It’s good he has a desire and hunger. But he needs to understand the facts and circumstances of the moment and the needs long-term.”

Ibaka was playing behind the Gasol brothers for Spain who got the bulk of the minutes at the four and five positions. He was never going to overtake them in these Olympics and take any of their minutes. There were times when Spain elected to go with the veteran Felipe Reyes over Ibaka which could have been frustrating for him.

Gasol said he wasn’t sure if he would be playing in the 2016 Olympics in Rio and if he isn’t, then Spain will definitely have a huge need for Ibaka. Ibaka will be one of Spain’s stars by then and the experience playing in those Olympics should be much richer for him.

“I’m not going to play forever,” Gasol said. “Marc Gasol is not going to play forever.”

Ibaka just signed a 4-year, $49 million contract extension with the Oklahoma City Thunder meaning he will be on OKC by the time the next Olympics come around.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

The Los Angeles Lakers appear to have drastically improved their roster from last year with the two major trades they made this summer acquiring Dwight Howard and Steve Nash. So much so that many are calling them NBA title favorites already.

On paper, the two trades seem like they will definitely make the Lakers a bigger threat in the Western Conference, where they finished third last season behind the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder.

Let’s take a closer look at how Howard and Nash will change the Lakers’ offense.

Pick-and-rolls

The Lakers were in the bottom half of the league last season in pick-and-roll offense efficiency at 0.84 PPP. The Lakers have been a team that hasn’t had a point guard play a significant role on it in recent history. L.A. acquired Ramon Sessions last season and he improved them in that department somewhat but not much.

Most of the ball handling was done by Kobe Bryant who was second in the NBA last season averaging 27.9 points per game although shot only 43 percent from the field. Kobe found his offense with the pick-and-roll 12.2 percent of the time and had a 0.86 PPP.

The two primary roll men in the pick-and-roll for the Lakers were of course Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Gasol was surprisingly below average with a 0.73 PPP. Bynum was hardly ever used in the pick-and-roll, just 3.4 percent of the time, and had a 1.12 PPP.

Nash and Howard should help the Lakers most in this area of the offense. Nash has been a master of the pick-and-roll for all of his career and Howard is one of the best roll men in the league.

Nash did 60.9 percent of his scoring in the pick-and-roll last season and had a 0.92 PPP. Nash is also as good a passer as anyone in the league and was second in the NBA last season in assists. This doesn’t take into account how effective he is distributing as well.

Howard was the roll man 8.9 percent of the time on offense and had a blistering 1.36 PPP. Howard may even improve upon that number now being surrounded by more offensive options and Nash handling the ball most of the time.

Gasol is the player most likely to benefit from playing with Nash now. Gasol will never be wasted with Nash on the floor and should good more touches in better spots. He should become the perfect pick-and-pop option as well.

Post-ups

The Lakers posted up as much as any team in the NBA last season as it accounted for 20.5 percent of their offense. They were very efficient at it two finishing second in the NBA with a 0.89 PPP.

Kobe was most efficient when working out of the post with a 0.93 PPP and he got 19.3 percent of his offense from there. Gasol had a 0.95 PPP and Bynum 0.89.

Howard was right around where Bynum was last season posting a 0.88 PPP. This is where acquiring Howard shouldn’t be too much of an upgrade from what Bynum did last season. Bynum has one of the best post-up games in the NBA and played nearly the entire season last year making his first All-Star game for the Lakers.

One area where the Lakers really thrived in was scoring off cuts, which often came from big-to-big passing out of the post. Gasol had a 1.17 PPP on cuts last season and Bynum had a 1.53. They each got a decent chunk of their offense from this too, 14 percent or more for both. The Lakers as a team were fifth in PPP in cuts last season at 1.26.

Howard only got 8.2 percent of his offense from cuts last season, about half as much as Bynum, and had a 1.41 PPP. Gasol is a very skilled passer as a big so we should expect Howard to have more offense from this next season. Not to mention Nash who will open up more opportunities for cuts in the offense next year as well.

Isolations

The Lakers got 12.4 percent of their offense from isolation plays last season and were right in the middle of the pack with a 0.79 PPP.

Kobe of course leads the way in this department with isolations accounting for 27.9 percent of his offense. That number should go down some next season as Kobe won’t feel the need to try and do everything for the Lakers on offense with Nash and Howard in town now.

Kobe had a 0.86 PPP on isolations which isn’t bad but he is on the decline overall and the less he has to rely on isolations, the better for the Lakers. Kobe has been more reliant on his jumper more than ever lately and has lost a step on his drive.

Nash is a very good isolation player too and often looks to score in these situations after bigs switch on to him in a pick-and-roll. Nash had a PPP of 0.89 on isolation plays last season.

Spot-up shooting

Spot-up shooting is the area Nash will really help the Lakers. You can go down a long list of pros that Nash made into excellent 3-point shooters just by playing with them. The Lakers went to spot-up shooting plays 16.6 percent of the time last season and were 19th in the league with a 0.94 PPP.

Kobe had a 0.92 PPP on spot-ups and Gasol 0.88. Expect both of those numbers to go up and to see the Lakers get more of their offense from spot-up jumpers as well. The acquisitions of Jodie Meeks (1.03 PPP) and Antawn Jamison (0.93 PPP) will help in this department as well.

Conclusion

The Lakers should have a much more efficient offense next season in the pick-and-roll and spot-up shooting. Howard is hardly an upgrade over Bynum in the post however. Nash will make things very easy for everyone and shooting percentages should all climb from last season.

The Lakers were close last season and Howard and Nash will make them legitimate title contenders next season. This was just how their offense will improve next season. Their defense should as well with the impact Howard makes on the end of the floor, being second to none.

The key will be how much time it takes these guys to learn to play together. This isn’t like what Miami had to deal with when LeBron, Wade and Bosh teamed up. All of these pieces fit so we should see them gel quicker more like how Boston did back in 2008.

Douglas Jones-US PRESSWIRE

The Los Angeles Lakers shook up the landscape of the NBA again when they traded for Dwight Howard last week.

The deal will immediately make the Lakers legitimate NBA title contenders and in some people’s eyes, the NBA title favorites already.

The Lakers will have to go through the Oklahoma City Thunder though. The defending Western Conference champs didn’t make any big moves this summer simply because they didn’t have to. The Lakers have improved their roster leaps and bounds from last year but the Thunder are still more than capable of matching up with them.

Here’s a look at how the matchup will breakdown.

Point guards

The Lakers’ biggest weakness the past few seasons was the point guard position. They went out and got Steve Nash this summer which will drastically improve that area for them. Nash will turn 39 next year but is still playing at an elite level. Last year with Phoenix, he averaged 12.5 points and 10.7 assists per game in just 31.6 minutes per game. He also matched a career-high shooting .532 percent from the field and also shot .390 percent from three.

Old age is not the ideal weapon to throw at OKC’s Russell Westbrook who is one of the best athletes in the NBA. Westbrook is coming off a great season himself where he was fifth in the NBA averaging 23.6 points per game. It’s safe to say Nash will have a pretty difficult time staying in front of Westbrook.

Westbrook will have a huge edge in terms of athleticism but Nash can make up for it some with his basketball savvy. Westbrook has struggled somewhat in matchups vs. experienced point guards but in the long run, Westbrook will still have the advantage here. Nash could outplay him in a half of a game, but for the full 48, the advantage goes to Westbrook.

Shooting guards

The Lakers have always been used to having a huge advantage at this position with Kobe Bryant. That may not be the case against the Thunder though. James Harden was the Sixth Man of the Year last season, made the 2012 Olympic team and is very much closing in on the heels of Kobe.

It’s not fair to say that Harden will have an advantage over Kobe yet in this matchup but it’s definitely closer than some people would think. The Thunder made Kobe really work for his points when they played in the postseason. Kobe had a pretty good series averaging 31.2 points per game and 10.2 free throw attempts per game but the Thunder still did a good job containing him.

Thabo Sefolosha is an elite perimeter defender that has no problem guarding Kobe one-on-one. The Thunder would be able to rely on using Sefolosha on Kobe a lot in this matchup if they could count on playing a lot of small lineups like last year. But that will be less likely with the Lakers’ size for next season.

Harden will have to match up with Kobe even more so than usual. Kobe should see a decline in the advantage he has over Harden in this matchup and there may even be some games where Harden can match Kobe.

Small forwards

The Thunder will just about always have the advantage at this position. No one in the NBA can slow down Kevin Durant. Metta World Peace used to be his kryptonite but not anymore. Durant averaged 26.8 points and shot .516 percent from the field vs. the Lakers last year in the playoffs.

Durant even proved that not even LeBron can really slow him down when he averaged 30.6 points per game in the Finals and shot .548 percent.

The Lakers will have a very tough time slowing down Durant and will have to weather his storm. That’s the biggest problem for the Lakers in this matchup. Even though they have improved their roster, they haven’t necessarily improved it in a way to slow down OKC’s big three on offense.

Durant and Westbrook should have less success driving into the paint with Howard now lurking but they are jump shooters first anyway, and that’s how they beat L.A. last year.

Power forwards

Now we’re getting to the big men where the Lakers will have the advantage. At power forward we will be seeing a lot of Pau Gasol vs. Serge Ibaka. Ibaka finished second in the Defensive Player of the Year voting last season but still has some issues guarding good post-up players like Gasol.

Gasol was not very assertive last year though especially against the Thunder as he only averaged 12.9 points per game against them in the playoffs. Gasol looked much better in the Olympics but it isn’t a guarantee he will carry over that level of play back to the NBA.

Ibaka seems to always play big against the Lakers too. He can get his midrange shot easily with Gasol matched up with him and averaged 4.0 blocks per game vs. the Lakers in their playoff series.

Gasol is expected to be more comfortable with the Lakers next season in their Princeton offense and with Nash. Ibaka should improve too though and will be able to slow down Gasol again.

Centers

This is where we see the biggest change. Howard is far and away the best center in the NBA right now. It’s easy to forget this since most of our recent memory with him is how he ruined his image in Orlando.

Howard is impossible for almost any team to match up with except maybe the Thunder. Kendrick Perkins has always had the reputation as being one of the few guys in the NBA who could guard Howard one-on-one. While this may not be exactly true it should still limit the Lakers’ advantage over the Thunder at this spot.

The key with the Thunder vs. the Lakers is they don’t have to double anyone. The Thunder never had to double anyone last season until they got to the NBA Finals and ended up stuck with Harden guarding LeBron in the post. That’s a huge reason why they lost and a huge reason why they got that far is that they are able to match up with every team man-to-man.

This is why the Thunder should still be considered the favorites in the West. The Lakers got better but not quite enough to dethrone the Thunder, at least without seeing them play yet.

The Thunder and Lakers will play for the first time next season Friday, Dec. 7 on ESPN. Howard is expected to miss the beginning of the season but could be back in time for that game. If he isn’t, the next meeting between the Thunder and Lakers will be Jan. 11.

FIBA secretary-general Patrick Baumann and his group plan to propose the sport to have it included in the Olympics as early as 2016.

“Like volleyball has beach volleyball, swimming has synchronized swimming, we want three-on-three to be part of it,” Baumann told USA Today.

Baumann said that 3-on-3 would give more countries a chance to be represented in Olympic basketball and help grow popularity of the sport globally. Each country would be responsible for coming up with a way to rank their best 3-on-3 teams and have one represent them.

It’s hard to imagine NBA players would be participating in this. It seems more likely that this would be an Olympic sport where the U.S. always sent amateurs.

It would be interesting to see the kinds of rules that would be set too. Obviously it would be played half court but usually with 3-on-3, there aren’t officials. You call your own fouls and there is far less structure than what there is in every other Olympic sport we currently have.

It seems like this should be further away from happening than the next Olympics, but four years is a long time to get something done.

For fun, imagine the best USA team we could put together. LeBron-Durant-Howard with maybe Rose as a sub. Rubio-Gasol-Gasol would have a tough time getting the gold from that squad.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

The Los Angeles Lakers pulled off the biggest move of the summer last week when they traded for Dwight Howard. It is a move that will shake up the landscape of the NBA, as is always a case when a player as talented as Howard switches teams.

The Lakers finished the season last year as the 3-seed in the Western Conference behind the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder. Now they are being talked about as potentially the NBA title favorites.

But should we be talking about them already as title favorites?

The Lakers starting five for next season will certainly be an impressive one. They are returning Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Metta World Peace from last year and now adding Howard and Steve Nash.

The pieces should fit in seamlessly. This won’t be a case like we saw in 2011, when LeBron, Wade and Bosh joined together in Miami and it took some time getting used to. Nash’s selflessness will ensure this more than anything.

With Nash running the show, he will get the ball to players when and where they need it. Kobe is at a point in his career where he shouldn’t stand in the way of this too much. Expect a bounce back season from Gasol too now teamed with Nash.

There is some potential for the personalities to not exactly gel. Howard is known as a kind of jokester that doesn’t take things seriously enough. He was able to be this way in Orlando as the clear alpha-dog of the team playing for a franchise that had so much invested in him. No one was going to call him out for that behavior but that will change in L.A. playing alongside Kobe.

There is the question of age too. Nash is 38 and Kobe is an old 33. Both are on the decline but showed last year they can still play at an elite level. It will continue to become harder to sustain that level but playing with Howard will make it easier.

It has been easy to forget just how valuable Howard has been during all of the recent drama. Before Howard ruined his image, he was deservedly so considered one of the most valuable players in the league. The effect Howard had in Orlando was remarkable, leading that team to high playoff seeds and anchoring one of the most efficient defenses in the NBA with little support around him.

Howard did get injured this past season and is expected to miss the beginning of next season. If he can get back to 100 percent, playing at the level he has shown in the past, the Lakers may very well emerge as NBA title favorites.

Of course there are a few teams that would like to have a say in this. The Miami Heat are coming off an NBA championship season last year with LeBron James playing as well as he ever has. The Heat made some noise this offseason too adding Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis to the roster.

In the West, the Thunder, Spurs and Clippers are all returning very formidable teams that will be able to compete with the Lakers. The Thunder got to the NBA Finals with a very impressive playoff run through the West’s elite and are only expected to improve upon that next season with the experience they gained.

We know what to expect from the Heat and Thunder. The Lakers are more of a wild card and that’s why they shouldn’t be called the title favorites just yet. We need to see what they do on the floor first and until then, the league still belongs to the Heat and Thunder.

Mike Krzyzewski gets to ride off into the sunset from his Olympic coaching career, getting his second gold medal and finishing his career as Team USA’s coach with a 62-1 record.

The game was very reminiscent of the 2008 gold medal game. Spain came out playing better than they had all Olympics and trailed by just one point entering the fourth quarter.

Team USA came out great in the fourth though scoring seven quick points. Then LeBron James picked up his fourth foul, came out of the game and Spain remained within striking distance.

When LeBron came back in, he made a backbreaking 3-pointer over Marc Gasol in the same way Kobe Bryant made a huge three four years ago.

LeBron James caps off an amazing year for him that included an MVP, NBA title and now gold medal making him the first player since Michael Jordan in 1992 to do that.

Pau Gasol led Spain with 24 points, eight rebounds and five assists in the game.

The U.S. made the plays they needed to down the stretch. It wasn’t the prettiest win. Each team committed 27 fouls in the game and Spain also battled foul trouble with Marc Gasol picking up four in the first half and sitting the entire third quarter.

The U.S. made 15-of-37 threes in the game while Spain wasn’t as good at 7-for-19. Team USA also held their own on the boards outrebounding Spain and getting 12 offensive rebounds.

With the win, the United States capture their 14th gold medal in Olympic basketball history.

Here are grades for all of the players:

LeBron James – 30 minutes, 19 points, 3 assists, 7 rebounds – B+

It wasn’t LeBron’s best game but he came up big when Team USA needed him scoring five points in the final three minutes. The zone Spain mostly played limited what LeBron did on offense as less of Team USA’s offense ran through him. When he picked up his fourth foul late in the game and had to come out, it looked like Team USA might be in some trouble but they survived.

Kevin Durant – 38 minutes, 30 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist – A

Durant passed Spencer Haywood as the all-time U.S. leading scorer in a single Olympics in this game. Getting 30 from him was huge and very necessary for Team USA to pull out the win. By his standards he was a little off on his shot making 5-of-13 threes in the game. He was better scoring all around in this one and got to the line 10 times, making nine. His defense remained solid as well as he got many deflections and held his own down low.

Carmelo Anthony – 21 minutes, 8 points, 3 assists, 5 rebounds – C+

Anthony was nothing special in this game making just 2-of-6 threes. He also got into foul trouble and with him not scoring much, Team USA became really dependant on Durant and Kobe to fill it up, which they did. Anthony was great rebounding on defense in the fourth quarter though while matched up with bigger players.

Kobe Bryant – 27 minutes, 17 points, 2 assists, 2 rebounds – A

Kobe had been bad for a lot of these Olympics but really looked pretty good in the medal round, including this game. He hit some big shots early and late and shot a solid percentage. He had a few bad turnovers but luckily that didn’t cost the U.S. the game.

Chris Paul – 33 minutes, 11 points, 2 assists, 3 steals – B+

Paul was a little too passive in this game and could have looked for his shot a little more late. He still hit a big three in the third quarter and made a huge driving layup with 53 seconds left to put Team USA up 104-93.

Deron Williams – 10 minutes, 6 points, 1 assist – C+

Team USA could have used another player to step up and hit some outside shots. Williams made both of his 3-point attempts but didn’t do much else. He didn’t play as much as he had been either with the game pretty close in the second half.

Russell Westbrook – 9 minutes, 3 points, 1 rebound – C+

Westbrook did not play at all in the second half and didn’t make much of an impact in the first half either. Westbrook is a great NBA player but his game didn’t translate too well in these Olympics within this team.

Kevin Love – 19 minutes, 9 points, 9 rebounds – B

Love’s rebounding was huge and he had three offensive boards but his post defense was basically nonexistent. He couldn’t contain the Gasol brothers really at all and that was a big reason why the game was close.

Tyson Chandler – 9 minutes, 2 points, 1 rebound – C

Chandler hardly played again and didn’t even do a good job while he was in as Pau Gasol scored on him a few times. His impact was minimal.

Andre Iguodala – 2 minutes, 1 rebound, 1 turnover – C

Iguodala hardly played too. Even with LeBron in some foul trouble, Coach K went with Kobe playing more minutes instead of some Iguodala.

James Harden – 1 minute, 2 points – C

Harden came in with under a minute to play with the game pretty much in hand. He got fouled twice and went 2-for-4 from the line. Unacceptable.

Anthony Davis – 1 minute, 1 rebound – C

Davis pulled down the final rebound of the game. That has to count for something. Can’t wait to see him in Rio, and the NBA for that matter.

Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

The United States will take on Spain in the gold medal game at 10 a.m. EST this morning. The U.S. and Spain are meeting in the Olympic gold medal game for the second straight Olympics with the U.S. winning in 2008 118-107.

Team USA and Spain were the two favorites in these Olympics and were expected to meet in this game. The United States rolled through their competition winning all seven games by an average of 35.7 points per game.

Things didn’t go quite as planned for Spain who lost twice in group play to Russia then intentionally to Brazil so as to avoid the United States until the gold medal game. That worked out well for Spain who beat France 66-59 in the quarterfinals then knocked off Russia 67-59 in the semis.

Spain is considered the greatest test for Team USA so far. They may not have looked their best so far in the Olympics but we can expect to see them play their best basketball today.

Pau Gasol is averaging 18.4 points per game to lead Spain while brother Marc is second on the team scoring 12.0 points per game.

Spain will have a significant size advantage vs. the U.S. as they also bring Serge Ibaka off the bench, who is only playing 14.1 minutes per game and averaging 7.4 points and 3.7 rebounds per game.

Team USA’s lack of size was supposed to be a big weakness for them entering the Olympics but they have made up for it with great 3-point shooting. As a team, the U.S. is shooting .445 percent from three in the Olympics and taking 36.6 threes per game.

Kevin Durant is leading the team averaging 18.0 points and shooting .558 percent from deep. Carmelo Anthony is second on the team at 17.4 points per game while shooting .525 percent from three.

LeBron James has also come on of late for the U.S. notching the first ever triple-double in U.S. Olympic history in the quarterfinals vs. Australia. He’s averaging 12.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and is leading the team with 5.9 assists per game.

Two big factors will decide this game: 3-point shooting and size. Spain is fully capable of outplaying the U.S. in both areas and will need to, to have a chance at winning.

We know they will have the size advantage but they will need to take advantage of it scoring from the post. That will open up the 3-point shot which Spain has struggled with these Olympics shooting it at just .328 percent.

They have some players who can heat up from deep though, most notably Rudy Fernandez and Juan Carlos Navarro. Spain should be able to nullify Team USA’s excellent ball pressure defense with their experienced guards, Jose Calderon and Sergio Rodriguez.

This is the game we have all been waiting for. It’s the only right way to decide the gold medal in basketball, having these two teams play a 40-minute game. The U.S. will be favored and rightfully so but Spain has as good a chance as anyone to pull off the upset.

This will also be the final game as head coach of Team USA for Mike Krzyzewski. Krzyzewski has led the United States to a 61-1 record under him since he took over in 2006 and was there when they won gold in Beijing four years ago. 61-2 would be considered a failure for Coach K.

The Lakers made the two biggest moves of the summer now, trading for Howard after trading for Steve Nash earlier. They now have a starting five that suddenly looks like it might be the best in the NBA including Howard, Nash, Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant.

“That’s what the Lakers do,” Kevin Durant said. “They have great management and ownership to make those moves come to life.”

The defending Western Conference champs still say they are the team to beat in the conference though.

James Harden also gave his view of Dwight trade: “It doesn’t take away from us at all.” Is OKC still the team to beat in West? “Of course.”

— Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) August 11, 2012

Harden is right on with this. We’re always so quick to crown teams before they’ve even stepped on the floor together as is the case with the new-look Lakers.

The Thunder may not be making drastic changes to their roster for next season but that’s because they don’t have to. They’ll gladly take the lessons learned from an NBA Finals loss to the Miami Heat and experience of their four best players playing in the Olympic gold medal game tomorrow into next season without shaking up their roster at all.

It’s no doubt however that the Lakers have improved their roster and done so dramatically. They’ll be better next year but the Thunder will too. And the Lakers have a lot of ground to make up on the Thunder.

The only thing that is for sure is that NBA fans will be robbed if somehow the Thunder and Lakers don’t meet in the Western Conference Finals.

USA vs. Spain is the gold medal matchup everyone wanted to see. The United States are of course the favorites to bring home gold while Spain has always been considered their greatest competition.

Team USA has won all seven of its games in the Olympics so far by an average margin of 35.7 points per game. Spain has been far less impressive losing twice in pool play and looking weak in each of their last two games in the medal round.

The United States has passed some tests so far, beating Argentina twice and surviving a close scare vs. Lithuania but Spain should still be their toughest battle yet.

Here are five reasons why Spain might upset the United States in the gold medal game.

Spain is bigger

Let’s start with the most obvious one here. Spain has a significant size advantage over the U.S. and they intend to take advantage of it as much as possible. Spain starts the Gasol brothers and then brings Serge Ibaka and Felipe Reyes off the bench.

The U.S. will start Tyson Chandler as their only big and use Kevin Love too but mostly plays LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony at power forward. The U.S. has outrebounded their opponents by over 10 boards per game in the Olympics but that is mostly because they are shooting a far higher percentage.

The U.S. is definitely weak inside as we saw in their games vs. Lithuania and Argentina, when they play without a rim protector their opponent will get a lot of relatively easy looks at the rim.

Spain will pound it inside on offense and pack in their zone on defense. This is closer to the international style and they will have an advantage. Mismatches do go both ways though and Team USA will have to make sure they take advantage by featuring their more skilled forwards in positions where they can be effective against slower, bigger defenders.

3-point shooting

Team USA has lived by the three and they’ve won by it so far in the Olympics. They are attempting 36.6 threes per game and making .445 percent of them. That’s off the charts but there is always a chance even for Team USA to go cold from behind the line tomorrow morning.

Durant and Anthony become very important in this regard as they have led Team USA in 3-point shooting. Durant is shooting .558 percent from three in the Olympics and Anthony .525. They are Team USA’s two leading scorers as well.

Spain has been on the opposite end in terms of 3-point shooting success in the Olympics. They’re shooting just .328 percent as a team with some of their best guys really struggling.

Rudy Fernandez is third on the team in scoring and shooting .367 percent. Juan Carlos Navarro is shooting .333 percent and Jose Calderon .348 percent. Even Pau Gasol has been shooting the three for them, making just 5-for-15 in total.

Spain is fully capable though of heating up from three in any game as they showed in the second half of their semifinal game vs. Russia. They will need to do that and pray that Team USA has an off shooting night to pull off the upset.

40-minute game

The games in these Olympics are eight minutes shorter than NBA games. That means there is greater chance for an upset and less time to erase mistakes made early in the game. Spain is more experience playing this style and will surely try and take advantage of it to the fullest mostly by controlling the pace of the game.

Fortunately for Team USA, Spain hasn’t been getting off to great starts lately and will definitely need to if they plan to win the gold medal. Spain should be up for this game more than any other though and we should see a more concentrated effort from them. Pau Gasol admitted himself that Spain has been looking ahead too much in the Olympics so far. That won’t be the case tomorrow.

Team USA has consistently seen teams play their best games against them, at least for spurts. With the game obviously being close early, Spain should show us their best game from the start. We’ve seen Argentina unable to sustain this for 40 minutes but Spain may be able to.

Officiating

The officials haven’t exactly been on the side of Team USA in these Olympics as per usual. The rules are a little different and there are some things that Team USA will simply never get used to. We’ve seen a lot of Team USA players called for traveling or called for very questionable fouls.

You only get five fouls before fouling out in international play and that could play a huge factor. Chandler will be more important than ever in this matchup vs. Spain but he has in every game gotten into some sort of foul trouble. One would expect that to happen again vs. Spain and that could be very bad news for Team USA.

Team USA players don’t get star treatment either overseas. LeBron and Durant will be asked to defend Spain’s post players some and will be vulnerable to some easy foul calls. If one or both of them has to sit on the bench more than normal, Spain will have that much better of a chance to pull off the upset.

Kobe

Kobe is probably Spain’s best chance for beating Team USA. Kobe has been for the most part pretty horrible in the Olympics although he has been better in the last two games. We know that Kobe will be shooting in the gold medal game and if he’s not hitting, that will put Team USA in a tough spot.

Coach K will more than likely play Kobe at least half of the game and probably more and he will have him out there during crunch time, if there is one. Kobe has the potential to shoot Team USA out of the game or Spain into the game if he looks like the Kobe we saw in pool play.

The same goes for Anthony as well. Both he and Kobe are going to take shots, probably a lot of bad ones, and if they’re not falling, Spain will be that much closer to Team USA.

The margin for error will be the smallest for Team USA tomorrow morning. They’ve been able to overcome their imperfections so far but Spain is the real test.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

Dwight Howard has finally been traded from the Orlando Magic as part of a 4-team blockbuster sending him to the Los Angeles Lakers and a bunch of other players elsewhere.

The Lakers got Howard as well as Chris Duhon and Earl Clark from Orlando. The Magic received Arron Afflalo, Al Harrington, Moe Harkless, Nikola Vucevic, Josh McRoberts and Christian Eyenga as well as some future draft picks. Denver received Andre Iguodala and Philadelphia got Andrew Bynum and Jason Richardson.

Howard heading to L.A. surely headlined this trade but it wasn’t the only important part of the trade.

Here’s a breakdown of the four teams involved with the trade:

Los Angeles Lakers

We might as well start with Howard’s destination, L.A. The Lakers did it again here, snagging the top center in the league to remain relevant. They did so by only having to give up Andrew Bynum and somehow hanging on to Pau Gasol.

The Lakers have now acquired Howard and Steve Nash in one summer and will strut out a starting lineup with them, Gasol and Kobe Bryant. They’ve immediately put themselves into the NBA title conversation with what many are calling the best starting five in the NBA now.

The Lakers got everything they wanted here and more. Pairing Nash and Howard will make for one of the more deadly pick-and-rolls in NBA history, even at Nash’s age. Throw in Gasol who should get an appropriate amount of touches with Nash handling the rock and Kobe at a point in his career, ready to sacrifice even more to win and the Lakers look better than ever.

They may or may not be favored to make it to the NBA Finals but that doesn’t really matter. They are now in position to match up much better with the West’s biggest competition, the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Howard has said he wants to test out free agency next summer but still, the Lakers should be able to hang on to him long-term. They can offer him an extra year and $20 million more on his contract and after a year in L.A., it seems very unlikely he’d want to bolt.

Howard is said to likely not be ready for the start of the season, still nursing his ailing back but that’s not a problem for the Lakers at all.

Orlando Magic

The Magic waited a pretty long time before finally dealing Howard. The idea was that they were holding out for a really good package and would keep him as long as possible, maybe even through the trade deadline of next season.

It was more than surprising to see the kind of deal Orlando made out with here. The package of young talent and picks they are getting isn’t as good as the one Houston had been offering them. They didn’t want to deal with Houston though only because the Rockets wouldn’t take on enough of their bad contracts apparently.

Afflalo and Harrington are basically pointless and they couldn’t even get Gasol out of the deal, whether they wanted to keep him or not they could have easily traded him somewhere for something.

They aren’t screwed with guys like Afflalo and Harrington now and it is clear that new GM Rob Hennigan wants to try and emulate what the Thunder did, bottoming out and drafting high for three years in a row. Good luck with that finding the next Durant-Westbrook-Harden trio in the next three drafts.

Denver Nuggets

Denver is very happy with what they did in this trade, besides allowing the Lakers to acquire Howard, which in the long run may have made this a bad move by them.

But getting Iguodala while parting ways with Afflalo and Harrington is a big upgrade for them. Iguodala will fit in perfectly with what they’re doing over there. As an athletic wing and defensive stopper, Iguodala will thrive in Denver’s up tempo offense and give them something they were missing on defense.

Denver was going to be a playoff team next year and now become that much better. They have a legitimate shot at getting to a 4-5 seed in the West and there’s nothing wrong with that at all.

Philadelphia 76ers

The 76ers are also very happy getting Bynum here as hard as it was to say goodbye to Iguodala, who gave them so much over the past eight years. Bynums don’t come around too often and upgrading to the second-best center in the league is a big move for Philly, especially since they’re in the East.

Bynum will be a very tough matchup for any team in the East, including the Miami Heat. No one’s saying they are going to compete with the Heat now but they definitely took a step closer.

They were a 7-9 seed team with Iguodala as their best player and Bynum will raise that ceiling. They should be right there with Indiana, Boston and Chicago now.

There is a chance Bynum won’t work out perfectly though. He’s a knucklehead and has had some big injury concerns in the past. But Philly had to take this chance. Bynum was a first-time All-Star last season and now in a place where he can get 20-plus shots a night, might blossom even more.

Oklahoma City Thunder

We have to include the Thunder in this trade because they are very much affected too, along with the rest of the league. OKC looked to have the West locked up for the next five years easily but now they are being questioned as the favorites in the conference.

The Lakers definitely upgraded and should be highly touted but the Thunder aren’t making any lateral moves next year either. They expect to improve simply from the invaluable experience they gained after an NBA Finals trip as well as adding some bodies to the rotation like Eric Maynor and Perry Jones.

Howard is scary to a lot of teams but the Thunder actually have a guy who can match Howard’s physicality in Kendrick Perkins. Yes, Perkins is now relevant again. It looked like the league might have been shifting to small ball but not so fast. Perkins is exactly what the Thunder need to contend with Howard next season.

The Thunder actually matchup well with the Lakers elsewhere too. Serge Ibaka can keep up with Gasol, Westbrook is a nightmare for Nash on defense and no one is slowing down Kevin Durant.

It was never going to get easier to win titles and this trade is an example of that.

It was a very ugly game in the first half especially by Spain as they shot very poorly from the outside and Russia was matching their physicality inside.

Spain got their act together in the second half, hitting some threes early in the third quarter and that really seemed to get the rest of their game going as well. Russia doesn’t have a prolific offense and once Spain took the lead couldn’t find enough to come back.

Spain advances to the gold medal game for the second straight Olympics and will await the winner of USA-Argentina who play later today.

Here are grades for both teams’ players:

Spain players

Pau Gasol – 34 minutes, 16 points, 12 rebounds, 2 blocks – A

Pau was quiet in the first half with the rest of Spain but made some big plays in the second including a 3-pointer. He didn’t seem to ever establish position well enough in the post but still led Spain in scoring.

Marc Gasol – 29 minutes, 11 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks – B+

The offense went through Marc in the fourth quarter and he delivered, scoring some and always looking to make other things happen too with the pass. He and his brother didn’t hookup as much with their great interior passing in this game but they came up big when they needed to and grinded out the victory.

Rudy Fernandez – 29 minutes, 11 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists – B

Fernandez didn’t have much going in this game besides the three 3-pointers he hit. With the score so low, all of them were big though and really got Spain going. He eventually fouled out and didn’t make some of the spectacular plays he’s sometimes capable of.

Jose Calderon – 33 minutes, 14 points, 3 assists – B+

Calderon had some bad turnovers late but the game was pretty much in hand by that point. He made four threes for the game and a few really big ones during Spain’s run. The Russia defense was good so the assist total was low but he definitely played big down the stretch for Spain.

Juan Carlos Navarro – 20 minutes, 4 points, 3 assists – C

Navarro is described as a player that plays big in big games but that was not the case today. Russia kept him in tact pretty easily and he only attempted one three in the game which he missed. He had a few nice assists but doesn’t have the explosiveness he used to, to create much else.

Serge Ibaka – 7 minutes, 2 points, 2 rebounds – C+

Ibaka barely played in this one and didn’t at all in the second half as Spain went with Felipe Reyes as a sub for the Gasol brothers instead of Ibaka. His basket in the first half was a nice one finishing with a foul on the fast break but his overall impact was pretty minimal. He played with a lot of energy and it’s a little curious why he doesn’t play more. Expect to see a little more of him if Spain sees the U.S. in the gold medal game.

Sergio Llull – 21 minutes, 7 points, 4 rebounds – B+

Llull has been great for Spain in the medal round so far. He plays with so much energy and is always looking to make things happen. Spain needed the lift he provided today especially and he made all three of his shots. He’s an underrated piece for this Spain team.

Russia players

Andrei Kirilenko – 34 minutes, 10 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks – B-

Kirilenko was just 2-for-12 from the field but does so many other things too it wasn’t the worst thing in the world for Russia. They did need him to step up as Spain was coming back and he struggled to do so. He also missed a few key free throws late which could have given Russia a chance to come back in the final moments. He had a great Olympics leading Russia to a pretty impressive record but this was not his best game.

Alexey Shved – 26 minutes, 2 points, 7 assists – C+

Shved also really struggled from the field shooting 1-for-6 and 0-for-4 from deep. His jump shot has been off all Olympics but he has made up for it some with his playmaking. He did a nice job with seven assists but like Kirilenko, was needed to put the ball in the hoop more and came up short for his country.

Alexandre Kaun – 24 minutes, 14 points, 5 rebounds – A

Kaun played big time for Russia in this one holding his own with the Gasol brothers and leading Russia in scoring. He was very good rolling to the rim and within Russia’s offense and thanks to their good playmakers, he was found often finishing with dunks.

Viktor Khryapa – 34 minutes, 2 points, 4 assists, 6 rebounds – C

Khryapa was cold shooting today as well at just 1-for-6 and 0-for-4 on threes. He made some good plays as a playmaker at the top of the key like he usually does with the four assists but Russia needed a better shooting performance overall and from him in this one to win.

Timofey Mozgov – 14 minutes, 4 points, 2 rebounds – C

It’s interesting that Mozgov doesn’t start or play more for this team. He had been pretty good in the Olympics so far but was mostly a no show in this one. Russia went with the stretch fours and Kaun at center rather than trying to go bigger with Mozgov.

Anton Ponkrashov – 29 minutes, 10 points, 2 assists – B+

Ponkrashov stepped up his game vs. Spain much like he did in their first meeting. His scoring was huge with not much else working for Russia but like the rest of the team, he cooled off as Spain ran away with the game in the second half.

Sergey Monya – 25 minutes, 9 points, 2 steals – B+

When Monya was hitting threes in the first half Russia was looking like they were going to win. But they couldn’t sustain it for the entire game.

Vitaly Fridzon – 12 minutes, 8 points, 1 steal – C+

Fridzon lit up Spain for 24 points in their first meeting but was much less of a factor in this one. He was still fine in the little time he played making 2-of-3 threes. Russia went with more defense and Shved over Fridzon for most of this game.

Russia finished pool play as the top seed from Pool B, beating out Spain after winning their game 77-74 on a last-second 3-point shot. Spain led 20-2 in that game before Russia’s Vitaliy Fridzon got hot scoring 24 points to lead Russia back for the win.

Russia went on to beat Lithuania in the quarterfinals as Spain came from behind to beat France and advance.

Russia has been led by Andrei Kirilenko who is playing some of the best basketball of his life of late. Kirilenko is leading Russia averaging 18.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game while shooting .587 percent from the field. Kirilenko was quiet in Russia’s win over Spain though with just eight points on 2-of-8 shooting.

Spain was cold from deep in that game going just 3-for-15 and really has struggled with the 3-point shot so far in these Olympics, shooting it at just .314 percent. They are capable of much better though with players like Juan Carlos Navarro, Rudy Fernandez and Jose Calderon.

The strength of Spain comes on the inside though led by the Gasol brothers. Pau is leading the team averaging 18.8 points per game while Marc is averaging 12.2 points. They are also combining for 12.1 rebounds per game.

Spain had to get past a very tough French defense in the quarterfinal that may have served as a sort of wakeup call for them. Spain really turned up the intensity in the fourth quarter to come from behind to win while holding France to just six points in the final period.

Russia has some bodies to contend with Spain though in Timofey Mozgov and Victory Khryapa who have both been solid in the Olympics so far.

The X-factor for Russia will be guard Alexey Shved who has been good in the Olympics so far averaging 10.7 points and 5.5 assists per game but has uncharacteristically struggled with the 3-point shot shooting just .259 percent. Shved is a big time playmaker for this team though and will have to play big for Russia to win today.

Spain will need a bigger game from Navarro than what he’s shown in the Olympics so far. Navarro is a little banged up and looking older these days as his jumper and runner have been a little off in these games. He’s a big game player though and expect him to show up today.

Even though Russia beat Spain already, Spain is still the favorite to win here. They just have too much balance on their roster and the skilled size down low should help them prevail. Russia has made a habit of proving people wrong though and they will give another valiant effort today.

Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

Dwight Howard has finally been traded from the Orlando Magic and it’s the Los Angeles Lakers that will be acquiring him as first reported by ESPN’s Marc Stein. Sources say that a trade call will be made to the league office Friday morning to complete the deal that will involve a total of four teams.

The Lakers would acquire Howard and the Magic would get Arron Afflalo, Al Harrington, Nikola Vucevic, Moe Harkless and a first round pick from each team at least. The Denver Nuggets will get Andre Iguodala and the Philadelphia 76ers will get Andrew Bynum and Jason Richardson.

Howard finally being traded is a long time coming and just about everyone is glad to see him finally leave Orlando. Howard has said he does not want to sign an extension and wants to test free agency next summer.

The Lakers will have until June 30 next year to get Howard to sign an extension. In the long-term, extending with the Lakers would benefit Howard the most financially so there’s still a good chance he will do so or simply re-sign with the Lakers next summer while he’s testing free agency.

It was reported yesterday afternoon that this 4-way deal might happen and it was including Pau Gasol in the deal then. Now it appears the Lakers will not have to give up Gasol and are basically just swapping Bynum for Howard.

The Magic were patient in their quest to part ways with Howard and wanted to wait for the best deal possible. Somehow that is coming in the form of what they are getting here.

Philadelphia and Denver both should be happy to be a part of this. Philadelphia has wanted for awhile now to find a way to become more than a perennial 6-8 seed in the East and getting Bynum for Iguodala might have the potential to make them a serious contender in the East.

Denver is kind of in the same boat and isn’t losing much in this deal while acquiring an All-Star in Iguodala who will certainly make them a better team.

Howard’s saga in Orlando seemed to last forever and there were times where it didn’t look like there was going to be an endpoint. It’s good that is finally over and of course it’s the Lakers once again swooping in and acquiring the best center in the NBA.

Howard Smith-US PRESSWIRE

Trade talks have resumed again over Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard. The Magic and Los Angeles Lakers have been trying to come up with a deal that would send Howard to L.A. for a few weeks now.

The latest development now involves a proposed blockbuster trade that would include the Denver Nuggets and Philadelphia 76ers as part of a 4-team trade, according to Yahoo! Sports.

The Lakers would receive Howard and Al Harrington, Orlando would get Pau Gasol and Arron Afflalo, Andre Iguodala would go to the Nuggets and Andrew Bynum to the 76ers.

The biggest thing keeping Orlando from dealing Howard thus far is that they haven’t seen a deal out there worthy yet. Gasol and Afflalo are nice pieces and it is also believed though they would try and flip Gasol somewhere for young players and picks.

The Houston Rockets could possibly be interested in Gasol as they have stockpiled a roster full of young talent and draft picks. Houston was part of the 3-way trade that was vetoed last year that would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers and Gasol to Houston.

More details will have to come out with this potential deal though because Orlando still definitely wants to give up more than just Howard. They want to start over in a sense, ridding themselves of all their bad contracts. Taking on Gasol and Afflalo doesn’t exactly accomplish that.

Kobe Bryant said earlier this summer that Pau was his guy and wasn’t going anywhere. The Lakers roster already looks very nice for next year with Steve Nash alongside Kobe, Gasol and Bynum. They’d be trading two for one to take on Howard in this deal which is a little bit of a risk.

The other interesting wrinkle in this deal is Iguodala and Bynum’s potential landing spots. You have to think Philadelphia would be all for swapping Iguodala for Bynum and trying to build their team around the young center.

Iguodala would probably seamlessly fit in with Denver and what they’re doing with the top scoring offense in the NBA, possibly making them a little bit more of a dangerous playoff team.

The deal isn’t close to being done though as the teams are just in early talks right now.

Spain trailed by two points heading into the fourth quarter before holding France to just six points in the final period as they came away with the win 66-59.

Marc Gasol led Spain with 14 points and nine rebounds while Pau had 10 points and 10 rebounds. Serge Ibaka had four points and five rebounds in limited time, but made an important impact on defense in the fourth.

Boris Diaw was magnificent for France with 15 points, five assists and eight rebounds while Tony Parker scored 15 points but on 6-of-20 shooting.

The game ended in chippy fashion with an uncharacteristic dirty foul laid on Juan Carlos Navarro by Nicolas Batum. With the game essentially in hand, Batum went at Navarro for an intentional foul and crossed the line, balling his fist and swinging below the belt on Navarro.

Batum was not tossed from the game and in fact remained on the floor. He likely would have received a 5-game suspension in the NBA. Batum was clearly frustrated but the move was very unexpected.

Spain shot 37.5 percent from the field while France was at just 33.8 percent. Spain again struggled from deep shooting 4-for-20. France made 4-of-8 threes to start the game but then made just 3-of-13 to end the game.

Spain has not been sharp in their last few games but rose to the occasion in the fourth really upping their defensive intensity to pull out the gritty win. They’ll take on Russia, who beat them in pool play, in the semifinal on Friday.

No one wanted to win that game despite what the players had to say.

“No. Never,” Spain point guard Jose Calderon told ESPN.com when asked if Spain wanted to lose. “This is not our team, this is not the way we play, this is not the way. We’ve been together since I don’t know how many years, and we always play to win. Always.”

By the time the game was ready to start, it was known exactly who each team would play if they won or lost. The winner would move on as the 2-seed to a bracket that included Team USA as the 1-seed and Argentina as the 3-seed. The loser went to the side with Russia as the 1-seed and France as the 2-seed.

It’s not hard to see which bracket was more desirable to be in.

Before the game began it was announced that Brazil’s starting center Nene would sit out the game with plantar fasciitis. In a must-win game, Nene never would have missed a game vs. Spain especially because Brazil would need all the help they could get on the frontline.

Spain responded to Nene’s absence by playing their big guns few minutes. Pau Gasol played 24 minutes and Marc Gasol played 25. The brothers combined to score 45 points on 16-of-21 shooting.

Spain led 66-57 after three quarters but then was outscored 31-16 in the fourth to ultimately lose 88-82.

Rudy Fernandez only played 15 minutes and missed his only shot attempt. Jose Calderon played just 14 minutes while Serge Ibaka, who hadn’t been playing much all Olympics, logged 21 minutes and scored 14 points with six rebounds and three blocks.

Leandro Barbosa would lead Brazil with 23 points before sitting during the final minutes.

The game was clearly trying to be lost and by both teams. That’s not exactly what Olympic competition is all about right? Maybe it is.

The goal is to win a gold medal. Losing this game has put Spain in a better position to do so. It’s no guarantee or anything but there’s no question that Russia/France is weaker competition than USA/Argentina.

The problem, if there is one, is with the system or the amount of competition out there. There is a clear-cut difference in talent between Argentina and France despite France beating Argentina in pool play. Spain would never choose to play Argentina instead of France if they could, not to mention try and avoid the U.S. at all costs.

There is no real incentive to acquire a higher seed either because there’s no homecourt advantage. This will of course never be the case in the Olympics and this is really what we get with pool play.

Pool play is fair because it fairly seeds teams but since it is not a straight up elimination tournament, tanking will sometimes be beneficial. The only way to stop this would be to change the system.

Until then, Spain played it smart and Brazil will be left shaking their heads in the coming days as they try and get past Argentina and the U.S. to make it to a gold medal game.

It was very clear no one really wanted to win this game. The loser would avoid the United States and Argentina until a potential gold medal game.

Spain led 66-57 after three quarters and then was outscored 31-16 in the fourth. Pau Gasol played just 24 minutes and had 25 points on 9-of-11 shooting. Marc Gasol played 25 minutes and had 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting.

Rudy Fernandez only played 15 minutes and missed his only shot of the game and Jose Calderon played only 14 minutes.

On Brazil’s side, Nene did not play but the rest of their NBA players played close to normal minutes.

Leandro Barbosa led Brazil with 23 points in the game and went 2-of-2 from three. Brazil was 8-for-17 on threes in the game and Spain struggled again going just 4-for-13 from beyond the arc.

Serge Ibaka came off the bench for Spain and played 21 minutes, scoring 14 points to go with six rebounds and three blocks.

The matchups for the medal round are basically set now unless Argentina blows out Team USA by 35-plus points. Spain will be the 3-seed playing France in the quarterfinal. Brazil will be the 2-seed and play Argentina on the other side of the bracket.

Team USA will play 4-seed Australia and 1-seed Russia will play Lithuania.

Geoff Burke-US PRESSWIRE

Who wants to lose more?

Spain and Brazil will play today at 3 p.m. EST and neither team will be better off winning the game.

The winner of the game will come out of Pool B as the 2-seed in the same bracket where Team USA will likely be the 1-seed and Argentina the 3-seed. The loser will get to be in the bracket where Russia and France are the top seeds.

This game will be very interesting and don’t be surprised if players like Pau Gasol or Leandro Barbosa aren’t playing as many minutes as they could.

Spain and Brazil are both 3-1 in pool play so far with both losing close games to Russia. Spain and Brazil are two of the biggest threats to the United States in these Olympics and would both love to not see the mighty U.S. until a potential gold medal game.

A big reason why these teams matchup so well with Team USA is that they both have NBA size. Spain featured the Gasol brothers as well as Serge Ibaka and Felipe Reyes. Brazil has Nene, Anderson Varejao and Tiago Splitter in their corner.

The point guard position is a strength for both Spain and Brazil as well. Spain starts Jose Calderon and brings Juan Carlos Navarro off the bench. Brazil has maybe the best point guard not in the NBA in Marcelinho Huertas who is averaging 11.0 points and 6.2 assists per game in the Olympics.

This matchup is a very close one that is only hard to predict today because both teams could very well be trying to lose. If they both were trying to win however, Spain has to have the slight edge but it is real close.

Pau Gasol is averaging 19.5 points per game so far in the Olympics and looks very comfortable in his clear alpha dog role with Spain. Rudy Fernandez has played pretty well too averaging 10.8 points per game and Spain is just a little more balanced and experienced than Brazil.

Barbosa is leading Brazil averaging 13.0 points per game while Splitter is averaging 12.0. They don’t have quite the same outside shooting ability that Spain does which could very well be the difference in this matchup.

It’s kind of hard to say what to expect with this game later today. The Olympics are all about competition but we might not see that exactly today with this game. Ultimately every team wants to win a gold medal and if losing first betters those chances than there really shouldn’t be anything wrong with that.

Russia proved today that they need to be taken seriously, beating the favorite Spanish team 77-74 and putting themselves in perfect position to finish pool play undefeated.

Trailing by two with 18 seconds left, Spain went to Pau Gasol who was fouled with five seconds left and had a chance to tie the game. Gasol missed the first free throw then made the second and that was all she wrote.

Vitaly Fridzon scored 24 points off the bench for Russia to lead them. Kirilenko scored just eight points to go with eight rebounds.

Pau Gasol led Spain with 20 points and five rebounds. Marc Gasol and Rudy Fernandez were the only two other Spanish players in double figures with 10 apiece.

Spain led 28-11 after the first quarter but struggled from three in the game going just 3-for-15 as Russia chipped away at their lead eventually coming all the way back.

The Russians were coming off a dramatic victory a few days ago in which they upset Brazil 75-74 on a last-second 3-pointer.

Russia will look to finish pool play undefeated playing Australia in two days. Russia has wrapped up the top seed in Pool B which means they will avoid the United States until a potential gold medal game.

Spain will play Brazil in their final game of pool play. Spain and Brazil both have just one loss so far in pool play and the winner of that game will finish as the second seed in Pool B.

There is a chance that both Spain and Brazil would prefer to lose that game so that they can avoid Team USA until a potential gold medal game. Brazil could throw their game later today against China and then also lose to Spain to in two days to secure the three seed.

Deng finished with 26 points, nine rebounds and eight assists for the host country which is now 0-3 so far in the Olympics.

Spain improved to 3-0 as Pau Gasol once again led the way with 17 points and four assists. Calderon scored 19 points and Marc Gasol chipped in with 12.

Serge Ibaka came off the bench to score five points to go with four rebounds and two blocks.

Deng got some help from teammate Joel Freeland who just recently signed a 3-year deal with the Portland Trailblazers. Freeland scored 25 points and had eight rebounds for Great Britain today.

A barrage of late threes by Great Britain in the final minutes kept hope alive for them until the final buzzer. Spain struggled from the perimeter on the other hand making just 4-of-17 in the game.

Spain also struggled from the free throw line going just 21-for-32.

Spain sits atop Pool B with a 3-0 record and will play Russia who is also 3-0 so far in their next game on Saturday.

Spain is considered the favorite in Pool B and the biggest threat to challenge the United States for the gold medal while Great Britain would probably not even be playing in these Olympics if it wasn’t for them being the host country.

Pau Gasol is playing as good as he ever has for Spain of late averaging 20.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game for them. He is joined by brother Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka and Felipe Reyes to makeup a very formidable front line.

Ibaka has been very solid for Spain coming off the bench averaging 12.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game.

Spain is banged up with Marc Gasol nursing a shoulder injury and Rudy Fernandez getting roughed up in their last game. Team captain Juan Carlos Navarro missed the team’s last game against Australia with plantar fasciitis.

Spain beat China 97-81 in their first game after a scare early as China hung around led by Yi Jianlian who scored 30 points for them. Then Spain beat Australia 82-70 two days ago.

Great Britain lost to Russia by 20 in its opener then almost pulled off the upset vs. Brazil but lost 67-62.

Luol Deng is leading Great Britain averaging 19.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game for them and has played 39.3 minutes per game.

Deng is getting little help though aside from Pops Mensah-Bonsu who is giving them 17.5 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. It’s a case of Deng trying to do everything and it’s just way too much for him to handle.

Spain will not make it easy for Great Britain as they will surely outclass them. Spain has been together for a long time with this group and their offense runs like clockwork.

Spain is not the best defensive team and that’s how Great Britain could gain some confidence against them. If they can get hot from the outside and keep it close early, they could potentially hang around until the end with an upset in question.

Spain is definitely expected to improve to 3-0 with a win today matching the U.S. with an undefeated record so far.

There will be a third undefeated team remaining after today as well which will be determined by the winner of the Brazil-Russia game. Both teams are threats to Spain to upset them and win the pool but it is a long shot.

Andrei Kirilenko has been playing at a very high level for an underrated Russian team while Brazil has NBA size up front and a master of a point guard in Marcelinho Huertas.

Spain will play Russia then Brazil in their last two games of pool play after Great Britain today.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, Kobe and head coach Mike Brown have discussed in detail the possibility of the Lakers switching their offense to the Princeton style next season.

“It’s a great offense,” Kobe told Yahoo! Sports. “It’s exactly what we need. It takes us back to being able to play by making reads and reacting to defenses. It takes a great deal of communication, but that’s where we’re at our best: Reading and reacting as opposed to just coming down and calling sets. Calling sets make you vulnerable.”

The Lakers will look different next season with or without Dwight Howard. They traded for Steve Nash shortly after the season ended which will throw an entirely new variable into the Lakers and Kobe.

Kobe has never played with a point guard quite like Nash before, one who is so talented and has dominated the ball so much in his career. Both Kobe and Nash will be due to adjust now playing together and this new offense may play a big part in that.

The Princeton offense, which is considered a close relative to the Triangle offense Phil Jackson ran with the Lakers, will allow for more versatility from more players. Someone like Pau Gasol will be a perfect fit in it as he is such a great passer for a big man and skilled in so many ways.

As Kobe continues to age, now 33, he will continue to look for more ways to gain an edge on the competition. The great players always do this. They don’t just keep deteriorating as time goes on, they keep fighting during their athletic decline and often will rise back up in forms we haven’t seen before.

Kobe embracing an offense that won’t feature him as much as an isolation monster is an example of this. It’s really just what the Lakers need from him too.

The Lakers were bounced in the second round of the playoffs this past season in five games by the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder and Miami Heat met in the NBA Finals in what was a glimpse into what the future of the NBA will look like. The Lakers realize they need to change some to keep up with these young guns.

The Lakers have vaulted probably to the second-best team in the Western Conference for this coming season. The Thunder are still considered the class of the conference but adding Nash has moved L.A. ahead of the Spurs, probably unfairly.

There is still a great chance L.A. will trade for Dwight Howard before the season begins too which will make them that much more potent of a title contender.

The Thunder got over what some would consider a big hump beating the Lakers, the team that has dominated the Western Conference for so long, in a series a few months back. The Lakers aren’t rolling over and dying though.

The Thunder will be considered the favorites in the West this coming season but there will be a lot of work to do to repeat and make it to the NBA Finals again.

Spain was led by Pau Gasol who had 21 points, 10 rebounds and three assists and Serge Ibaka who scored 17 points off the bench to go with five rebounds and three blocks.

China who was a heavy underdog coming into the game would not go away because of a great game from Yi Jianlian who scored 30 points on 13-of-19 shooting to go with 12 rebounds.

Spain, who is not known for their defense, allowed 51.6 percent shooting by the Chinese but made up for it shooting 57.1 percent from the field themselves including 11-for-19 from 3-point land.

Jose Calderon had the hot hand early making three early 3-pointers and would finish with 12 points in the game.

China of course no longer features Yao Ming but they did have another legendary Chinese center dawn the court in Wang Zhizhi who had one of those “throwback Wang” games scoring 15 points while stepping out and knocking down a pair of treys.

Spain was not necessarily at their best in the game turning the ball over an unnecessarily 13 times against a mediocre Chinese defense.

Spain will have to play better to ensure winning the rest of their games in pool play and getting the top seed so as to avoid the United States until a potential gold medal game.

Spain will play Australia next on Tuesday and then against Great Britain Thursday.

Jerry Lai-US PRESSWIRE

Spain comes into the 2012 London Olympics viewed as less of a threat to challenge the United States for the gold medal than they were four years ago.

In 2008, Spain was looked at as the team with the best shot to knock of the United States who were no longer unbeatable, winning bronze in the 2004 games. The U.S. Redeem Team would come out on top in the 2008 gold medal game beating Spain.

Spain played Team USA earlier this week in an exhibition game and lost 100-78. Spain treated the game as a friendly however and we can expect more competition from them in the Olympics.

Spain opens up the 2012 Olympic Basketball pool play against China today with the tip at 11:45 a.m. EST. Spain is considered the favorite in Pool B and is ranked 2nd in the world by FIBA. China is ranked 10th in the world but still not considered much of a threat against a team like Spain.

Spain brings an impressive cast to London in 2012 led of course by Pau Gasol. Pau will be joined by his brother Marc on the inside as well as Oklahoma City Thunder power forward Serge Ibaka.

Ibaka is able to play for Spain as their one naturalized player because although he was not born there, he became a citizen while playing in their professional league a few years back.

The inside is definitely the strength of this Spain team and the biggest thing that will give them an edge over the U.S. but they also have pretty good balance elsewhere.

In the backcourt they will start Jose Calderon at point guard who was fourth in the NBA last season in assists per game. Calderon will be joined by one of the all-time greats from the Euroleague, Juan Carlos Navarro.

A big loss for Spain in these Olympics is that they will not be playing with Ricky Rubio who suffered a torn ACL last season and is still rehabbing. Rubio first came onto the national scene back in 2008 in the Olympics for Spain when he was just 17 years old.

At the wing positions Spain is solid too led by Rudy Fernandez and Victor Claver. Fernandez has played in the NBA for the past few seasons and made a name for himself as a fearless shooter and scorer while Claver will join the Portland Trailblazers next season.

China meanwhile has much less NBA experience on their roster. They are led by Yi Jianlian who now plays for the Dallas Mavericks. Yi was a high lottery pick in the NBA once upon a time but has jumped from team to team in his short NBA career having a tough time finding a good fit.

Yi only played in 30 games for Dallas last season. His best season was in 2009-10 for New Jersey when he averaged 12.0 points and 7.2 rebounds per game for the Nets.

Yi doesn’t have a ton of help but NBA fans will recognize the starting center for China, Wang Zhizhi. Zhizhi is a stretch bit who played some in the NBA spending most of his time hoisting up threes.

Sun Yue will start in China’s backcourt and is one of their best guards. Yue played for the Los Angeles Lakers one season back in 2008-09 and won an NBA title with them but only played in 10 games.

China will be overmatched by Spain in just about every area on the floor. Spain is an experienced bunch confident that they can compete for a gold medal this year. China will not be a team capable of standing in their way.

Spain will be very concerned with winning every game in pool play and winning by as big of a margin as possible. They want the 1-seed so they can avoid the United States until a potential gold medal game.

In Pool B, Spain has a little competition in Brazil and Russia for the top seed. If somehow there is a 3-way tie at the top of the pool, winning margin becomes the tie-breaker so expect to see Spain going all out to win every game starting today against China.

Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

The 2012 London Olympics are upon us with the opening ceremonies going on today. Olympic basketball will start Sunday, July 29.

The United States are coming in as the favorites to win the gold but the competition keeps getting tougher for them every four years. Team USA won gold back in the 2008 Beijing Olympics but did not in 2004 in Athens when Argentina won.

Team USA is full of NBA stars just like in 2008 but this time around they have a noticeable weakness that has the potential to be exploited by other countries. Team USA is small with only three true big men in Tyson Chandler, Kevin Love and Anthony Davis.

This has forced LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony to essentially play a lot of minutes at power forward and even center. Mismatches are a two-way street but given the way these international games are played, the U.S. could be in some trouble with this roster.

Twelve teams make it to the Olympics and they are split into two pools of six. Then each team in each pool plays each other once with the top four from each pool advancing to play in an 8-team, single-elimination tournament.

Team USA is in Pool A along with Argentina, Lithuania, France, Nigeria and Tunisia. Pool B consists of Spain, Brazil, Russia, Australia, China and Great Britain.

Pool Play

In pool play, expect the United States to pretty much dominate. France, Argentina and Lithuania all are considered to have a chance to possibly upset the U.S. but it is unlikely to happen before the medal round. Team USA should cruise winning every game in their pool and come out the 1-seed.

France, Argentina and Lithuania all have a legitimate shot at becoming the 2-seed. There is even a chance they could all finish with a 3-2 record in pool play to make things very interesting. France and Argentina are getting the most attention while Lithuania may have the better team of the three.

I think Lithuania emerges as the 2-seed in this pool followed by Argentina as the 3-seed and then France as the 4-seed.

Nigeria and Tunisia will battle it out for the irrelevant 5- and 6-seeds while neither should be able to beat any of the top four teams in this group. I predict Tunisia doesn’t win a game.

Spain is considered the heavy favorite to make it to the gold medal game against the United States. They should come out of this pool as the 1-seed but Brazil and Russia have an outside chance to finish ahead of them.

Ultimately Spain should come out as the 1-seed although there is some pressure to win every game in the pool and they definitely don’t want to finish as the 2-seed and be forced to play the United States before the gold medal game.

Brazil and Russia should be battling for the 2-seed or actually, the 3-seed. No one wants to get the 2-seed in this pool because then they would have to play the U.S. before the gold medal game. If Spain emerges as the definite 1-seed early in pool play, expect to see some interesting game plans from Russia and Brazil in an attempt to avoid Team USA.

I think that Brazil will finish as the 2-seed though as the final game of pool play will be between them and Spain. The winner of that game will determine who wins the pool as I think both will be undefeated up until that point.

Russia should get the 3-seed followed by Australia who I think narrowly edges out China for the 4-seed. Great Britain may not win a game except possibly against China.

Quarterfinals

Team USA should easily handle Australia and move on to the semifinal. They will play the winner of Brazil and Argentina which should be a very close game. I give Brazil the edge here but it really could go either way.

Spain should have no problem with France in their quarterfinal but it may be closer than people think. Lithuania and Russia should make for a very good game but I think Lithuania pulls it out.

Semifinal

Team USA was played very closely by Brazil in their exhibition game and I think this game will be possibly the closest one they play all Olympics. Brazil didn’t play any zone against the U.S. in that exhibition and still had a chance to win the game. They are much bigger too and have a great point guard in Marcelinho Huertas who gave the U.S. fits in the exhibition. It will be a close one but I’m not picking against the U.S. here.

Spain and Lithuania should be a good game too but Spain should definitely win. They are such a balanced team and may even win this game and have a 7-0 record in the Olympics after it. There will be a lot of talk about Spain having a real good chance of upsetting the U.S. after this point.

Gold Medal Game

It will come down to the two teams we all wanted to see play: USA vs. Spain. In their exhibition earlier this week Team USA won by 22 but Spain did not show all of their cards. Marc Gasol didn’t play at all and Pau Gasol and some of their other better players didn’t log heavy minutes.

This game will be as close as any in the Olympics and I truly believe it could go either way. Maybe what happens up to this point in the Olympics will change that feeling for me but from what I’ve seen from Team USA and Spain so far make me think this is a very even matchup.

I’m picking Team USA because of one man: Kevin Durant. For everything that is wrong with this Team USA roster, Durant fixes it by being the most unfair player in the tournament. It will be easy for him to rise to the challenge with the great talent around him especially aided by LeBron James.

The 2008 gold medal game was remembered as one of the best international basketball games ever played and I think the 2012 gold medal game will end up being right there with it. It will be another reminder that the world is catching up to the U.S. in hoops but that we are still the best because we have the very best, Durant and LeBron.

Jerry Lai-US PRESSWIRE

The London Olympics are now upon us. The opening ceremonies will be held tomorrow July 27 and the basketball begins Sunday, July 29.

USA Basketball is the favorite to win gold but not as overwhelmingly as you would first think. Teams like Spain, Brazil and Argentina are fully capable of upsetting the mighty U.S.

Team USA is in Pool A which we previewed yesterday. Pool B is led by Spain who is the team everyone expects to meet the United States in a gold medal game. Here is a preview of all of the teams in Pool B:

Spain

Spain has emerged as the most likely team to upset the United States in the Olympics. They are led by Pau Gasol and Marc Gasol as well as Serge Ibaka, Jose Calderon, Rudy Fernandez and Juan Carlos Navarro. They will be without Ricky Rubio which will hurt but they are still fully capable of pulling off an upset. Spain has a lot of experience and size that will be tough for any team to deal with including the U.S.

While Spain is the favorite in this pool, they are not a shoo-in to beat every team. To ensure a meeting with the United States in the gold medal game, Spain will have to finish first in the pool.

Brazil

Brazil is maybe the team with the second-best chance to upset the U.S. at the Olympics. They played Team USA very close in an exhibition losing 80-69 and exploiting USA’s lack of size. They are comprised of NBA talents Anderson Varejao, Nene and Tiago Splitter down low as well as Leandro Barbosa on the wing. Perhaps their best weapon is point guard Marcelinho Huertas who is a Brazilian version of Steve Nash and looked the part against Team USA.

Brazil has an outside shot of winning the pool but is more likely to get a two or three seed. When Brazil and Spain play it should be one of the best games in pool play.

Russia

Russia is led by Andrei Kirilenko who is reportedly playing the best basketball of his career right now, fresh off a championship game appearance with CSKA Moscow in the Euroleague. The Russians are more talented than usual and also feature familiar NBA names in Timofey Mozgov, Viktor Khryapa and Alexey Shved. Their weakness is the guard position though and it will be an adventure for them to handle the pressure a team like the United States will put on them.

Russia should be very competitive with everyone in their pool though and even has some potential to knock off Spain. Kirilenko can take over a game in many ways at times and will have to do so for Russia to advance far in the medal round.

China

China is ranked 10th in the world surprisingly ahead of Brazil and Russia. They are led by Yi Jianlian and Chinese legend Wang Zhizhi. China has certainly improved over the years and Yi is a very talented player but they aren’t really threatening to win a medal in these Olympics.

Expect an unimpressive showing from China. This pool is pretty stacked and they seem the most likely team to disappoint.

Australia

Australia will be without the one player that could have put them into medal contention in Andrew Bogut. They too are also an improving nation with hoops though and will put a decent roster on the floor led by Spurs point guard Patty Mills. They are less international good and more not quite NBA good and that will be a problem. The more experienced countries in this pool should finish ahead of them.

Great Britain

Great Britain is the host country and that’s the only reason they will be playing. Don’t expect much from them despite the fact that they are led by NBA All-Star Luol Deng. They may have the chance to pull off a hometown upset over China or Australia but we shouldn’t expect to see very much good basketball from them.

Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony led USA Basketball to a 100-78 victory over Spain Tuesday afternoon as the United States improve to 5-0 in exhibition play in preparation for the London Olympics.

LeBron scored 25 points and hit three 3-pointers and Anthony scored 27 with 23 coming in the first half as he was hot from deep making five 3-pointers as well.

The U.S. had a big advantage shooting the three in this game going 13-for-23 while Spain struggled at just 5-for-19.

Kevin Durant got off to a slow start as the United States fell behind early while Spain pounded the ball inside. Durant would finish with 13 points in the game making just one 3-pointer coming off the Argentina game in which he made seven threes.

Russell Westbrook came off the bench to give Team USA a nice little spark with nine points.

Pau Gasol led Spain with 19 points in the game and Serge Ibaka scored all 16 of his points in the first half. Marc Gasol did not play for Spain as he is still nursing a banged up right shoulder.

The United States still stuck to their small lineups although they pretty much had to with Tyson Chandler fouling out in just seven minutes of action. LeBron does a good enough job denying post position but once Spain’s bigs had the ball down low, the interior defense for Team USA was no match.

Spain did what they wanted to in this one. They showed that Team USA was beatable early on then they rested their best guys for much of the remainder of the game as the United States ran away with it.

It’s not as if Team USA played their best players the entire game but they are so much deeper than even Spain that they were able to keep playing at a high level with their bench on the floor.

Spain players made it clear before this game that the result of this exhibition was meaningless and they’d gladly trade a Gold Medal in a few weeks for a loss today.

In 2008, Spain lost to the U.S. in the group play by 37 points and then in the Gold Medal game in Beijing they lost by just 11.

The United States wrap up their exhibition play with a perfect record but still some things to work on. The Olympics officially begin Friday, July 27 but Team USA won’t play its first game until Sunday against France.

Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

USA Basketball will play its final exhibition game in preparation for the London Olympics today at 4:30 p.m. EST on ESPN2 vs. Spain in Barcelona.

The United States are 4-0 so far in exhibition games beating the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Great Britain and most recently Argentina 86-80 last Sunday afternoon.

Spain is ranked 2nd in the world according to FIBA and will definitely be the biggest test for Team USA so far. Spain is considered maybe the only team with a chance to beat the United States in the coming Olympics and we will find out more about that this afternoon.

Spain beat Argentina by 20 points a few days ago before Argentina lost to the United States by six on Sunday. Spain consists of perhaps the most impressive cast of NBA players besides Team USA with Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, Jose Calderon and Rudy Fernandez.

The game will feature four Oklahoma City Thunder players in Ibaka, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. Last year’s rookie sensation Ricky Rubio will not be playing in this game or the Olympics as he is still recovering from a torn ACL suffered last season.

Spain and the United States played in the memorable 2008 Gold Medal game in Beijing four years ago with the United States coming out on top 118-107.

The balance on Spain’s roster is better than Team USA’s and their talent is high enough to compete as well. The United States are very small and it has been an issue so far in the exhibition games. Spain will do the best job of taking advantage of their inside strength with the Gasol brothers and Ibaka.

The lane to drive will be closed up more than normal for the United States and they will likely continue to settle for jumpers from the short 3-point line. The United States has attempted an average of 28.8 3-pointers in their four exhibition games while shooting .374 percent.

Kevin Durant has certainly led the way leading the team in scoring at 18.8 points per game and has gone 14-for-26 on threes. Durant scored 27 points and made seven threes against Argentina.

Two other gunners for Team USA, Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony, have been less effective from beyond the arc. Kobe is shooting just .278 percent on threes and Anthony .250 percent. Kobe and Anthony will continue to look for their shots in general and take a lot of threes. One of the potential weaknesses of this team is Kobe and Anthony shooting them out of a game.

Team USA is at its best with Durant and LeBron James on the floor together. In the four exhibition games, they have each played 101 minutes leading the team. Durant started the last two games but did not in the first two as Anthony got the nod. Durant should continue to start though.

LeBron is second on the team averaging 17.0 points per game. His best game was against Brazil when the outcome was most closely in doubt and he took over scoring 30 points to lead the United States to victory.

LeBron’s role is most weighted on his versatility with Team USA especially because of how small they are. LeBron has basically been playing power forward at all times for the U.S., something that will become more challenging when he is matched up with Pau Gasol and Serge Ibaka.

LeBron has shown the capability to contend with the likes of a Gasol on the blocks but for an entire game it is not an ideal matchup for Team USA. LeBron expending that kind of energy on defense will maybe wear him down on offense too, although that shouldn’t be too big of a deal when Durant is on the floor.

The United States has been able to overcome a lack of size by being superior at the wing and guard positions. Their ball pressure on opposing guards is a huge strength although the experience of Spain’s guards, Calderon and Juan Carlos Navarro, should hinder that advantage.

The attention USA will have to pay to the interior on defense may open up more outside shooting looks for Spain too. Not many players are as prepared to pull the trigger on treys as Fernandez and Navarro and if they are hitting, Spain could pull off the upset.

We will learn a lot about Team USA today and see just how big of an issue their lack of size is. Spain will want to win but international teams understand that this is just an exhibition and they sometimes play accordingly, not going all out or showing their entire game plan.

Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

The Los Angeles Lakers have emerged as the frontrunner to land Dwight Howard this offseason. The potential deal that would send Howard to L.A. is a 3-team trade between the Lakers, Magic and Cavaliers.

The deal has a potential snag with Cleveland wanting Andrew Bynum to say he’ll extend past next season but even so, the Lakers are the most likely destination for Howard right now.

The idea of Howard playing alongside Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and Pau Gasol for the Lakers is scary to think about. Howard is one of, if not the most valuable player in the league with how he affects the game.

Would the Lakers surpass the Oklahoma City Thunder as the favorites to come out of the Western Conference if they land Howard? Would they become the NBA title favorites?

Not so fast. It shouldn’t be forgotten what OKC did last season making it to the NBA Finals. They deserve to be recognized as the best in the West until they are dethroned even if Howard is wearing purple and gold at the start of next season.

The Lakers have already drastically improved their team for next season by trading for Nash. The knock on L.A. the past few seasons was that they needed a point guard. With Kobe’s skills fading, the team now needed a true point to help him run the show.

Nash is more than a true point. He’s one of the best ever and while it’s hard to imagine at first how he and Kobe will mesh in the same uniform, you just kind of know they’ll figure it out.

Nash wasn’t going to solve all of their problems though. At 38, Nash is still one of the best point guards in the league offensively but struggles on defense as much as he ever has. The league and Western Conference in particular is so loaded with talented point guards these days that could become a real problem.

How do you solve Nash’s defensive woes? Howard would be that answer. The Lakers would practically be inviting players to drive past Nash with Howard waiting. No player in the NBA over the past five seasons has made the kind of defensive impact Howard has, turning a cast of mediocre defenders in Orlando to one of the premiere team defenses in the league. If there was ever going to be a way to hide Nash on defense, it would be with Howard patrolling the paint.

But this is still not quite enough to already put the Lakers ahead of the Thunder in the West. We’d definitely have to see them in action first before really knowing if they could challenge the Thunder in a playoff series but the Thunder are getting better too.

The Thunder of course have the best young roster in the NBA. Their progression in win percentage and playoff performance each season has been impressive. For next season coming off an NBA Finals appearance, there’s no reason to think they’ll take a step back.

The most talented team can always dictate how far they go in this league. The Thunder are that next to any other roster in the NBA. Team USA Basketball is comprised of 25 percent Thunder players. They are that good.

Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden are only going to get better. The rest of the Thunder team compliments their Big 3 making them tailor made to take down this Lakers team.

Thunder GM Sam Presti had the Lakers in mind when constructing this roster. That’s why they traded for Kendrick Perkins. He knows that the Lakers will always be around in the West and making sure you can take them down will in the long run always be the No. 1 priority.

Durant is going to be a mismatch problem for any team including the Lakers. Metta World Peace may very likely be out their door and the defensive options to throw on Durant will be slim for L.A.

Westbrook is the greatest problem though. We know Nash can’t stay in front of him because we found out no one could stay in front of him last season. He will continue to do whatever he wants against the Lakers and since he gets better every season, that will be even more devastating of a thing next year.

Dealing with the Lakers bigs won’t be a problem for OKC either. In fact, the Thunder would prefer that to having to go small and try and match up with LeBron James at the four. Perkins and Serge Ibaka are more than capable of slowing down a Howard and Gasol duo enough to still win a series.

Getting back to the NBA Finals will become more difficult if Howard is on the Lakers next season though. There’s no questioning that but there should also be no questioning of the Thunder, what they are capable of and what they are committed to. They will be ready for whatever challenge comes their way and have shown that it’s probably a good idea to bet on them at the end of the day.

Thunder fans don’t have to worry yet. They are safe atop the Western Conference and no one is challenging them quite yet. The Lakers have emerged as the team with the best chance especially if they land Howard but they aren’t the team to beat yet.

Jennifer Stewart-US PRESSWIRE.

Steve Nash was unexpectedly traded to the Los Angeles Lakers last night in a sign-and-trade with the Phoenix Suns for four draft picks and cash.

Nash was expected earlier that day to be closer to signing with the New York Knicks and a few days before that, the Toronto Raptors were the frontrunner for the former back-to-back MVP winner.

But as fate would have it, the Lakers swooped in and grabbed one of their former rivals. Nash in a Lakers jersey was unthinkable until yesterday. The Suns were even rumored to have turned down a deal to L.A. because they couldn’t stomach the idea of Nash playing there.

Now that he is there, how does this change the landscape of the Western Conference? Are the Lakers back now as NBA title contenders with Nash?

The Lakers get better with Nash, that’s for sure. Los Angeles has been looking for a point guard for some time now. They traded for Ramon Sessions at the trade deadline last season and that looked like it might work for awhile until Sessions disappeared in the playoffs.

Nash will be 38 years old at the start of next season but is still a productive player. He averaged 12.5 points and 10.7 assists last season in Phoenix. He also shot .532 percent from the field, .390 from three and .894 from the free throw line.

There is no question that Nash can still produce. The biggest question is how he will fit in with Kobe Bryant.

Kobe has never really played alongside a traditional point guard in his NBA career. Derek Fisher has been the point next to him for most of his days and the Lakers were a triangle offense team that didn’t feature a point.

Because of this, Kobe is used to having the ball in his hands as much if not more than the point guard he’s playing with. If you’ve watched Nash play, you’ll know that he too has the ball in his hands as much as any player in the league on offense.

Both Kobe and Nash will have to adjust. Nash will not be featured like he was in Phoenix. Kobe may want to let Nash patrol the floor with the ball in his hands a little more than he is used to.

Kobe and Nash may not work perfectly but they won’t fail. Nash is too good of a teammate and Kobe cares only about winning and he knows Nash is coming on board to assist in that.

Kobe will probably not benefit dramatically with Nash and get way more open looks. It will be the other players, especially Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, that feel the biggest change with Nash on the floor.

There is one area that Nash does not help at all and maybe even hurts the Lakers: defense. Nash has never been a good defender even back when he was super quick and winning MVP’s he still acted as an open door for guards like Tony Parker to easily drive by.

The greatest competition in the Western Conference for the Lakers will be of course the Oklahoma City Thunder. Just go down the list of their big three and you’ll see why they aren’t totally scared of the Lakers now any more than they were last season. They still can’t guard Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook or James Harden.

But the Lakers weren’t all of a sudden going to be the favorites to come out of the West after signing a 38-year old point guard. They are better though and their potential is a little unknown and possibly greater than we might think.

The other factor now in play with the Lakers signing Nash is Dwight Howard. L.A. didn’t give up much to get Nash so Howard is still technically very much in play with them. After Brooklyn pretty much fell through for Howard, the Lakers seem the most likely suitor for him.

A package involving Bynum is probably the best deal Orlando could get back for trading away the best center in the league. There has been discussion between the two teams with a trade looking like: Bynum and Metta World Peace to the Magic for Howard and Jason Richardson.

If the Lakers could end up with a lineup looking like Nash, Kobe, Gasol and Howard, we can start talking about them as NBA Finals hopefuls. Until then, it’s the Thunder’s league and everybody else is just playing in it.

The Magic have been open to trade walks involving Howard who has made it clear he wants out. Howard says he wants to go to Brooklyn to play with Deron Williams but would probably be happy too in L.A. with Kobe Bryant.

A potential deal would certainly involve Andrew Bynum going to the Magic but not necessarily Pau Gasol as well. The Magic are looking for young players to rebuild their team with and Gasol doesn’t fit that mold as much.

The Lakers are still shopping Gasol as well who has gotten a lot of interest from the Minnesota Timberwolves. Minnesota has offered Derrick Williams to the Lakers for Gasol. A potential trade could also include Michael Beasley.

The Timberwolves would love to acquire Gasol to team him up with fellow countryman Ricky Rubio and All-Star Kevin Love.

It looks like the Nets will have a pretty tough time getting Howard. They haven’t totally given up hope but are taking action with other things.

Brooklyn signed Gerald Wallace to a 4-year $40 million deal today. The Nets have also looked into a potential trade to acquire Joe Johnson so pair with Deron Williams.

Williams plans to meet with the Nets and Mavericks Monday to discuss his potential future.

For Orlando, the Lakers would have the best package as of right now to get Howard by sending Bynum. Bynum was an All-Star for the first time in his career last season and is only 24 years old.

Howard has wanted to be traded and pretending not all season long and somehow the Magic decided not to at the trading deadline.

A lot of trade rumors have surrounded Howard this season even one involving the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Back in March, Orlando approached Oklahoma City about a trade that would send Howard to the Thunder in exchange for James Harden and Serge Ibaka.

The Thunder said no.

The Thunder would have just been renting Howard if they went through with the trade because his contract would have been up after the season. But wouldn’t they have been guaranteeing themselves a championship by putting Howard next to Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook?

It’s easy to see now why they would have basically no interest in the deal since they are competing for a title right now with the team they have.

It still would have been pretty cool to see Durant, Westbrook and Howard on the court together wearing Thunder uniforms.

The Magic would have loved the trade getting Harden and Ibaka. It would have been the best possible outcome for them and part of why they haven’t parted ways with Howard yet is that teams don’t have a lot to offer for him right now.

There were always rumors surrounding the New Jersey Nets trading for Howard, potentially sending Brook Lopez, MarShon Brooks and some pieces to pair Howard with Deron Williams but that never happened.

The Magic want more for Howard and they should want more, but they shouldn’t expect it.

When your star player wants to be traded, you trade him. It never works out if you don’t. The Magic will inevitably do so whether it be in the offseason this year or during next season.

After the Los Angeles Lakers lost in the second round for the second straight season, there are now rumors of them blowing up their roster and they might have enough pieces to send Orlando’s way to land Howard.

Andrew Bynum had a breakout season and Pau Gasol’s days in L.A. seem numbered so sending both for Howard seems like a decent idea for both teams.

One thing is for sure though, the more this is drawn out, the more that no team wants anything to do with Dwight Howard.

Mark D. Smith-US PRESSWIRE

The Oklahoma City Thunder eliminated the Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant last night beating them 106-90 in Game 5 to advance to the Western Conference Finals.

Kobe did not go down without a fight scoring 42 points, taking 33 shots and recording zero assists.

After the game Kobe was asked about if he felt this loss was the ending of an era.

“I’m not fading into the shadows,” Kobe said. “I’m not going anywhere. We’re not going anywhere.”

Kobe, now at age 33 and in his 16th season in the NBA, is up against maybe the toughest opponent ever for him: time.

There is no competitor in the league today quite like Kobe. It’s tough to bet against him but he might not be able to overcome the wave of young stars now standing in his path of tying Michael Jordan with his sixth ring.

Kobe had a remarkable season this year. In a lockout condensed 66-game schedule, he somehow stayed healthy all year for the most part, nearly won the scoring title and led the Lakers who were somewhat a shell of their championship teams a few years ago to the 3-seed in the Western Conference.

Kobe looked as good as he has in a long time. It’s not enough anymore. It never really was for Kobe. He’s always needed help. He doesn’t have enough anymore.

There’s going to be a lot of talk surrounding this Lakers team in the offseason. Should they trade Andrew Bynum? Should they trade Pau Gasol? Should they blow the whole team up?

One thing is always certain and that is that Kobe will remain a Laker and always be their alpha dog. And it seems there is only one player out there that could possibly help him toward catching Jordan in rings: Dwight Howard.

Kobe has always needed help and Howard is the man for the job, the most talented big man in the league who doesn’t know what the hell he is doing. A perfect fit with Kobe.

Howard hurt his image as much as possibly fathomable this season and now in Orlando he has gotten rid of their head coach and general manager. He has one year left with the Magic and it seems very unlikely he’ll be there any longer.

Centers in Howard’s position have always chosen the Lakers. Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal all became Lakers around this point in their careers. Howard doing the same would be more than fitting.

After the season Bynum had and they might as well throw in Gasol too, Los Angeles should be able to pull off bringing Howard in to join Kobe and make a few last runs at an NBA title.

Kobe is right. He isn’t done. He’ll play another 5-7 years probably. But if he doesn’t want to go away from championship relevancy, Howard is his only hope.

Mark D. Smith-US PRESSWIRE

The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Los Angeles Lakers 106-90 in Game 5 to win the series and advance to the Western Conference Finals for the second straight season.

Russell Westbrook led the Thunder with 28 points while Kevin Durant chipped in with 25 points and 10 rebounds.

Kobe Bryant went down shooting as he finished with 42 points on 33 shots.

The Lakers simply did not have the legs to keep up with the Thunder in this series and it really showed in Game 5.

The Thunder outrebounded Los Angeles 51-35 in Game 5 including 14 offensive rebounds.

Oklahoma City turned the ball over more than any team in the NBA this season averaging just over 16 per game but cut that number in half in this series against the Lakers.

The Thunder were also one of the most isolation-heavy teams in the league this year but had 20 assists on 42 field goals tonight.

James Harden provided a fantastic lift off the bench scoring 17 points to go with eight rebounds and four assists.

The Thunder did most of their demoralizing damage on the break scoring 30 fast break points in the game.

The Lakers were unable to take advantage of their inside play of Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol in the series. The Thunder were able to play both big men straight up luring Kobe into trying to go off alone every night.

Kobe got his and the Thunder were fine with that. They knew they could beat a one man show because they had three guys who were going to get theirs.

The Thunder deserve to celebrate winning eight of nine games so far in the playoffs and doing it against the two teams who won the past three NBA titles but there work is far from done.

The San Antonio Spurs are playing better than any team in the NBA right now and will be waiting to play the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals.

The Spurs are a perfect 8-0 in the playoffs so far and haven’t lost a game since April 11. They will have home court in the series and played the Thunder well this season.

The Thunder and Spurs will begin the Western Conference Finals this coming Sunday at 8 p.m. EST for Game 1.

Metta World Peace picked up flagrant foul when he fouled Thabo Sefolosha hard from behind on a fast break.

World Peace and Kobe Bryant would then pick up technicals disputing the call resulting in four free throws for the Thunder.

The Thunder leads 54-51 at halftime and really hasn’t played all that well.

James Harden leads the Thunder with 13 points off the bench to go with four assists and five rebounds. Kevin Durant has scored 12 points.

Kobe leads the Lakers with 19 points and had 15 of those in the first quarter.

The Lakers are shooting 48.7 percent from the field but the Thunder are getting it done with 10 offensive rebounds and also have 13 assists on their 20 field goals.

After being called out by Kobe after game 4, Pau Gasol has come out more aggressive tonight scoring 10 points in the first half. Andrew Bynum, however, has been anything but into this game and has scored just seven points and taken four shots so far.

The game is closer than most expected coming in with many predicting the Thunder would blow out the Lakers. There is still time for this and the game does have the feel to it that the Lakers are ready to give in especially if the Thunder can put together a nice little run soon.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

The Oklahoma City Thunder will have a chance tonight at home to close out the Los Angeles Lakers and move on to the Western Conference Finals for the second straight season.

The Thunder are up 3-1 against the Lakers after coming back from a 13-point fourth quarter deficit in Game 4 in Los Angeles.

The Thunder ended Game 4 on a 13-4 run to stun the Lakers crowd culminating with a very clutch Kevin Durant 3-pointer in the final seconds.

After the Thunder blew out L.A. in Game 1, the Lakers got their act together and really have played well in the past three games.

Kobe Bryant was a machine at home getting to the line 35 times and causing tremendous problems for the Thunder defense.

Kevin Durant was forced to switch onto Kobe in the final minutes of Game 4 and did a very good job using his length to make scoring more difficult for Kobe than it has been lately.

When Game 4 looked like it was the Lakers’ to win, Thunder fans were just itching to get back home and have this Thunder team look like the one that swept Dallas and blew out L.A. in Game 1.

Tonight, Oklahoma City gets to return to their comfortable arena and behind what will undoubtedly be a rowdy crowd, they should give the Lakers their best stuff.

The Thunder are unlikely to let this series slip away up 3-1 but they certainly don’t want to return to the Staples Center and risk this series possibly going to a seventh game.

The Lakers are championship tested however and should also give it all they’ve got in OKC tonight. Kobe called out Pau Gasol after Game 4 so expect a better game from Gasol who has bounced back already in these playoffs after bad games like he did in Game 7 against Denver.

The Thunder have weathered the storm of a former champion playing hard while facing elimination already in the first round.

The Dallas Mavericks led OKC at home by 13 heading into the fourth quarter of Game 4 facing elimination before James Harden scored 15 in the fourth and led the Thunder back to win the series.

The biggest change when this series went to L.A. was the calls favoring the Lakers. At home, the Thunder should start to see the calls swing back their way and if that is the case, it should become nearly impossible for the Lakers to pull off the upset.

The Thunder want to get this series over with as soon as possible too now that the San Antonio Spurs are waiting for them in the Western Conference Finals after completing the sweep of the Clippers last night.

The Thunder don’t have to win tonight but they don’t look at it that way and that’s why the Thunder have been so good all year long and why they should win tonight.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

The Thunder has learned to come back and win games late – Darnell Mayberry, The Oklahoman

All postseason, Oklahoma City has closed out games in grand fashion. The Lakers, in Game 4, simply became the latest victim of the Thunder and its ability to storm back from a fourth-quarter deficit and secure a win.

That trait, not Westbrook’s explosiveness or Kevin Durant’s daggers or James Harden’s surgeon-like precision in the pick-and-roll, has been the most impressive thing about the Thunder’s playoff run thus far.

Oklahoma City is now all grown up.

Scott Brooks on closing out the Lakers

“To beat the Lakers, you have to play well. To beat ‘em, you have to do a lot of things well. You have to prevent them from doing things well. They’re a great team, a great organization. We know we have a big challenge ahead to close out a team. Nobody wants to go home early. We know the Lakers are a championship-level team. They’re not just going to give us game four. We have to win game No. 4. We know it’s always tough to close out a team, especially a team with championship DNA. A guy with Kobe on their team is not going to give up.”

Bill Simmons on James Harden – Grantland

To James Harden, who gave us the most important moment of Round 1: Game 4 in Dallas, when Harden drove the dying Mavs to the veterinarian’s office and put them down himself. Oklahoma City’s ceiling before that game: “If Westbrook and Durant aren’t making jumpers, there’s no Plan B.” Oklahoma City’s ceiling after that game: “Actually, there is a Plan B — they can just turn things over to Harden, let him create for everyone else and keep going to the rim.”

Oh, and just in case you worried that performance was a fluke, Harden repeated it against the Lakers in Game 2. That spawned an “Is Harden an original prototype?” e-mail thread with me and two die-hard NBA buddies — we finally decided that he has a chance (repeat: a chance) to become Ginobili 2.0, an even more athletic/durable/potent lefty two-guard who gets better when it matters. It’s in play.

Durant strikes balance when shooting aggressively – Scott Howard-Cooper, NBA.com

It was Durant at his cold-blooded finest, stepping up to meet the moment, in the face of adversity on the road, firing daggers at the opponent. But he was so wrong.

No one able to pass a competency hearing is going to criticize Durant for taking a terrible shot. That wouldn’t happen on any serious level, not with all the good will he has built up with his lethal offensive game and his personality. It’s not taking shots that will get him into trouble.

Durant has made commendable strides this season as a distributor, expanding his arsenal of ways to water board an opponent. The Thunder love it because the new look makes them tougher to defend and create a third playmaker, along with Russell Westbrook and James Harden. It’s just that every other team likes it more.

Anything that gets Durant out of scoring mode is a good thing for the rest of the league, and it is impossible for Oklahoma City and even Durant himself to deny he is still trying to find the right balance between being unselfish and being too unselfish. On those nights when too unselfish becomes blending in the background while waiting for teammates to seize a moment, the Thunder have real problems.

Kobe and Pau: It must be the end of an era – Kevin Ding, Orange County Register

Bryant has tired of having to prop Gasol up time and again. Bryant did it often last season in pursuit of a third consecutive title on a bad knee and before Bynum was ready, offering the compelling Natalie Portman-inspired narrative that Gasol is too often the “white swan” instead of the “black swan.” Like the movie, it didn’t end well.

This season, Bryant has still believed that Gasol can come through when it matters most. Bryant’s public request that the Lakers stop dangling Gasol in the trade market was him believing Gasol needed that support to persevere. When I was comparing the very night before the March trade deadline the emerging Bynum and Bryant to the regular one-two punch of Shaquille O’Neal and Bryant, it was Bryant who digressed to say: “We still have Pau.”

Thunder rise in clutch while Lakers wilt

On the flip side, Durant’s heroics will obscure a larger and more important story for the Thunder: the continued emergence of James Harden as a crunch-time weapon. Harden wiped out Dallas down the stretch of Game 4 in the Thunder’s first-round sweep, and when Durant wasn’t dunking or hitting floaters in the final minutes of last night’s game, the Thunder leaned on Harden to create out of the pick-and-roll. On the three Oklahoma City possessions that sandwiched Durant’s clutch steal-and-dunk, Harden blew by Bryant and Bynum (jumping too early against the screen) on one pick-and-roll for a layup, got into the lane on another before missing a shot at the rim and scored a layup in transition.

Durant and Westbrook look like Jordan and Pippen

Russell Westbrook scored 37 points while teammate Kevin Durant added 31 in the Thunder’s 103-100 win at Staples Center. It was the first time two teammates scored at least 30 points in a playoff road win over the Lakers since June 12, 1991, when Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan scored 32 and 30, respectively as the Bulls wrapped up their first NBA title with a win in Game 5 of the NBA Finals at the Great Western Forum.

Russell Westbrook: An L.A. story

Durant’s defense on Kobe

Kobe made his share of mistakes but played the best of any Lakers player in the last two games. He scored 38 points last night and has attempted 35 free throws in the last two games.

Kobe’s aggressiveness isn’t an issue but he thinks Pau Gasol’s is.

“Pau’s got to be more assertive,” Kobe said. “He’s the guy out there that we need. When he’s getting the ball he’s looking to pass. He’s got to be aggressive. He’s got to shoot the ball. He’s got to drive the ball to the basket and he will in the next game.”

Before Kevin Durant made the game-winning 3-pointers, the Lakers had the ball with the score tied at 98 and a chance to regain the lead.

Kobe and Gasol played the pick-and-roll and a double team forced Kobe to pass to Gasol who received the ball wide open from about 12-feet from the hoop.

Gasol bizarrely decided not to shoot and instead attempt a skip pass to Metta World Peace on the opposite wing which Durant intercepted.

“It was just a bad read,” Kobe said. “It was just a bad read on Pau’s part. It happens.”

In the final minutes of Game 4, the Thunder really turned up the intensity on defense. They hadn’t been doing a good job of stopping the Lakers all night but were able to completely turn that around on the final possessions.

Gasol seemed to become indecisive because of this and it resulted in the costly turnover. The Lakers will certainly need more from Gasol if they are going to come back from this 3-1 deficit and beat the Thunder in the series.

Gary A. Vasquez-US PRESSWIRE

The Oklahoma City Thunder finally lost a game in these playoffs 99-96 last night to the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 3.

The Thunder were 6-0 before last night and while every loss hurts, losing at least once was inevitable for this Thunder team in the playoffs.

Kobe Bryant shot 18 free throws in Game 3 and made them all. Lakers fans will describe this as Kobe relentlessly attacking the rim while Thunder fans see it as Kobe getting way too many calls.

The game was called tight throughout with a lot of ticky tacky calls being made out on the perimeter. At the end of the game those calls were going more toward the Lakers’ favor which was unfortunate for the Thunder and also has to do with their style of play.

When a game is being called close on the plays where players are jockeying for position, it favors the team that plays more with their back to the basket.

The Thunder were all pick-and-roll down the stretch with James Harden a lot and Kevin Durant some too. They got their fair share of calls in the game but not when they needed them.

The Lakers would wind up shooting 41-for-42 free throws in the game and only made 11 field goals in the entire second half.

Kobe finished with 36 points to lead the team.

Andrew Bynum who has some success in the first two games scoring down low was only 2-of-13 last night but 11-of-12 at the line for his 15 points.

If the Lakers are going to win tonight they will need better efficiency from the field from Bynum and Pau Gasol.

The Thunder are going to need more from Russell Westbrook to turn this series back around and heavily in favor of Oklahoma City.

Westbrook holds the biggest matchup advantage against the Lakers and needs to get his midrange shot going early on tonight. He tried that in Game 3 but over aggressiveness found him an early seat on the bench.

Westbrook was really nowhere to be seen down the stretch too and while that sometimes feels good because it means more Harden and Durant, against the Lakers the Thunder are going to need more from him like in Game 1.

It is unlikely that the game tonight will be called as closely as Game 3. We’re not going to see 70 free throw attempts again.

The Lakers have their confidence back now though. It shouldn’t matter though because at the end of the day, talent always wins out and that’s good news for the Thunder.

The Thunder showed part of why they are such a great team in the first two games of this series. They won both games and did so in two completely different types of games.

The Thunder took Game 1 in blowout fashion winning 119-90 and running the Lakers off the floor. Then in Game 2, the Lakers were winning for most of the game and it was terribly low-scoring before the Thunder scored the final nine points of the game to steal the victory.

Winning Game 2 like that is a sign that this Thunder team is growing up. They didn’t win those types of games a year ago and here they are now 6-0 in the Playoffs and having won three games that they weren’t supposed to.

The Lakers should be better at home these next two nights but it won’t be easy for them to win two games in two nights against the young legs of the Thunder.

In Game 1 everything went right for the Thunder and they were making their jump shots at a very high rate. That went away some in Game 2 as the Thunder just didn’t look to have much rhythm for the game in general.

Kevin Durant only took 15 shots in Game 2 and Russell Westbrook went 5-for-17. James Harden got into foul trouble in the first half which also contributed to the loss of good rhythm for the team.

Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol looked better but it is still clear that the Thunder bigs can handle the two Lakers bigs. Serge Ibaka in particular played a great Game 2 blocking seven shots.

Kobe Bryant has continued to not shoot the ball well from the field against the Thunder. He shot 30 percent against them in the regular season and went 9-for-25 in Game 2.

More will have to go right for the Lakers than for the Thunder for them to win, no matter home or away.

There were some good signs for the Lakers in Game 2 but nothing that says they will now comeback to win the series.

We will see tonight at 10:30 p.m. EST as the teams will tip in Staples Center.

The Thunder won Game 1 by an impressive 29 points and played near perfect basketball.

Kevin Durant scored 25 points and Russell Westbrook scored 27 points to lead the Thunder. Both were on their game and focused early on shooting very well from the field.

The Lakers tried to establish their inside game early and did a decent job of doing so but were unable to sustain it and once the game was out of hand it no longer mattered. Assuming the Thunder don’t shoot quite as well as in Game 1, Andrew Bynum’s 20-point, 14-rebound performance could be an issue for the Thunder to deal with.

Kendrick Perkins is a game-time decision tonight after re-aggravating his right strained hip in the third quarter of Game 1. His defense on Bynum and Pau Gasol will be much needed for the Thunder to win again.

The Thunder don’t need to double-team anyone on the Lakers including Kobe Bryant. Bryant shot 30 percent against Oklahoma City in the regular season and scored just 20 points in Game 1.

Thabo Sefolosha can get up into Bryant enough to make it difficult and without the same first step from earlier in his career, Bryant has to settle for more jump shots and is less effective.

The Thunder play great at home and while it will be tough for them to exactly replicate Game 1 they should still win again. A loss is a loss but a 29-point blowout says something more like the Thunder are the superior team in this series by far.

The Thunder were playing their first game in nine days after sweeping the Dallas Mavericks in the first round and they did not look rusty at all. It was clear they would be eager to get on the courts but sometimes that can result in less than sharp play.

Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were more than up for the challenge last night though. They had a game plan coming into the game and executed it to perfection. They shot extremely well from the field but they worked hard to get good looks and they were shots they usually are hitting.

The amazing thing is that it felt like the Lakers didn’t play that bad, at least on offense. They were doing a good job of getting Andrew Bynum going early inside and they were also taking advantage of the mismatches Metta World Peace presented.

While this was going on and the Lakers were warming up into their game, the Thunder was surging past them, focused and poised for the kill.

It’s no secret now how talented this Thunder team is. They are young but have three bonafide stars in Durant, Westbrook and Harden. They are three of the best scorers in the entire league and can all do it in slightly different ways.

They’re surrounded by great role players who know their role very well. Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka have no problems playing the Lakers bigs straight up and Thabo Sefolosha can essentially lock up Kobe Bryant on the perimeter.

Kobe shot just 30 percent against the Thunder in the regular season and the defense of Sefolosha has a ton to do with it. Kobe doesn’t have the same first step he used to and Sefolosha has the “student of the game” feel to him the way he approaches his assignment with Bryant.

The great thing about the Lakers usually is they have three players that are extremely difficult to handle on offense. Not for the Thunder though. This is the biggest reason why OKC may sweep LA.

The Thunder come to play every night. They have all season long and that’s one of the best things about this team. They’re good and know they’re good and aren’t interested in wasting any time not getting better.

A loss is a loss even if it’s by 29 points. If there’s a team that can probably shrug off this kind of loss it’s probably the Lakers but the Thunder smell blood right now. They know how to beat this team and take advantage of their strengths.

So that’s what’s going to happen. OKC will win this series and do so impressively because that’s who they are. There are still some legitimate doubts about the Thunder winning a title this year but they won’t come up during this series.

The Thunder thrashed the Lakers to the tune of a 29-point blowout victory.

Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook made it look easy scoring 25 and 27 points, respectively. They combined to go 18-of-31 from the field and 13-for-14 at the line. Westbrook also finished with nine assists and seven rebounds.

The Thunder were focused from the start and it showed as they turned the ball over a franchise-low four times in the game.

Kendrick Perkins started the game and looked fine until he seemed to reinjure his hip on a dunk in the third quarter and left for the locker room.

Oklahoma City started off strong but the Lakers countered early taking advantage of their size down low.

Andrew Bynum got started early with 10 points and five rebounds in the first quarter. He would finish the game with 20 points and 14 boards.

Metta World Peace heard the boos once he entered the arena but it seemed to motivate him more than anything as he hit two 3-pointers in the first quarter and played well getting position down low over smaller Thunder defenders.

World Peace did have an incident during the second half when he got tangled up with James Harden and took him down with another near elbow to the head.

Harden played great though for the Thunder scoring 17 points and getting to the line to make 9-of-10 free throws.

The greatest strength for the Thunder against the Lakers is that they don’t have to double team Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum or Pau Gasol. Kobe scored a pedestrian 20 points in the game on 7-of-18 shooting.

It looks as if Thabo Sefolosha will have no problem checking Kobe for the rest of the series and while the Lakers bigs had some success in the game it simply did not faze the Thunder.

Oklahoma City shot extremely well in the game but they were also getting a lot of open shots for them. The Lakers are going to really have to change their defensive game plan to slow down the Thunder who had everything seem so easy on offense.

It’s just one game but a 29-point victory feels like it means more. It was a statement win and a message not just to the Lakers but the entire league. The Thunder aren’t playing around anymore. They’re ready to win a title.

The Thunder and Lakers will play Game 2 Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. EST.

From the Chris Paul madness that opened the season through the tantrums of Andrew Bynum and up to the inexplicable 7 game series against Denver it’s been on display all year long. Which is exactly why OKC needs to be nervous.

First off let’s just start with the two biggest elephants in the room. Well, really just one elephant because Mamba is a stealth predator capable of taking down a sizeable foe like an elephant with one deadly strike.

Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant are the headliners in a series rich with drama. Some are calling it the passing of the guard in the Western Conference. But everyone was writing off KB24 as over the hill last year. All the dude did was go out and nearly take another scoring title this year.

KD got the crown for top point producer and honestly should have taken his first MVP award too. But being overlooked in the West is nothing new. How Bryant only has one to his name is a mystery. Such is life when all people see you as is a scorer.

Durant’s all around game has improved but scoring is still what he does best. Bryant has the edge because he can affect the game in ways Durant just can’t.

Kobe is a killer of the highest degree who gives full effort every night. And if the game is on the line there’s only one closer that’s proven himself with a career’s worth of big shots in bigger game. Bryant also can adapt his game to any scenario. Shifting from scorer to facilitator has become common for Kobe this year. He too deserved some MVP love but we all knew the hype machine was going to crank out another trophy for the LeBrom collection.

While we’re on the topic of hype nothing is more over-hyped than the so-called Kendrick Perkins effect.

I’ve seen Perk go toe-to-toe with the Laker bigs in those two Finals battles when he was sporting that ugly green jersey and here is what I know for sure. He is a very good low post defender that throws his size around and intimidates with his presence.

But he’s got an offensive game that makes Dikembe Mutombo cringe and is almost a complete non-factor on the boards considering his size and the position he plays. All that talk of Perkins bringing toughness to a team is just hot air. That means nothing if Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol are going for double-doubles each night.

What that presence in the post does for the Lake Show is allows them to control the tempo which is OKC’s greatest asset.

Slowing the Thunder roll takes Russell Westbrook’s greatest weakness (half court hoops) and puts it on display for the world to see.

With the game being played at L.A.’s pace the points in the paint battle looms large. For a team like OKC that lives and dies by perimeter scoring that become problematic. As we just saw against Denver athletic and active bigs like Serge Ibaka can cause problems for the Lakers but over the course of a seven game series true post game always overcomes the genetic lottery.

If the Thunder can’t get out and run then all that James Harden front running gets put on the back burner. Plus he’s got to contend with Metta World Peace again. It goes without saying this will be the matchup that will be the most talked about after elbowgate. I don’t in any way endorse the actions of the ironically self-named World Peace but his defensive approach is more intimidating than his MMA.

Don’t overlook that last meeting between these two teams either. Some want to just chalk that OT thriller up to late season indifference but something clicked for the Lakers in that game. Yes, the Thunder ran away from the Lake Show in their previous meetings. But as we all know when the Lakers feel like they’ve got something to prove or are painted into a corner they tend to come out with an intensity few teams can match between the determination of Kobe and the harassing nature of Metta.

And yes, there is the added element of Derek Fisher facing his former team. That too is being oversold. D-Fish and all his intangibles are nice for barbershop talk but the reality is he’s a defensive liability that doesn’t play like a true lead guard any longer.

Now I’m not going to go Bynum and push the easy button on this one. The Thunder is a legit title contender for years to come. This just isn’t the year they get their hands on that Larry O’Brien. Everyone pays their dues and now is OKC’s time. I don’t see any way for the Lakers to win this one in less than seven games. Which means you’ll just have to endure a heart-breaking loss in your crib. Take your medicine and we’ll see you again next season.

The Thunder are eager to get back on the court but are also thankful for the rest so that their starting center, Kendrick Perkins, could rest after injuring his hip in Game 4 against the Dallas Mavericks. It is still uncertain if he will play tonight.

The Thunder have been taking steps very quickly over the past few years toward becoming a true title contender. They made it to the Western Conference Finals last year, swept the defending champs in Round 1 and now will look to take that next step beating the mighty Los Angeles Lakers.

The Thunder are favored in this series and should be. They’ve been one of the best teams all season long really coming to play each and every night while the Lakers are a team known to take nights off.

The Lakers had their ups and downs in their first round series against the Denver Nuggets who took them to seven games. The Lakers were able to take advantage of their considerable size advantage in the final game and close out the pesky, energetic Nuggets.

The Lakers will not have that luxury now in Round 2 against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

The Big Men

The play of the bigs in this series is going to be one of the most important matchups to watch. Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol are both All-Star caliber players but don’t always play like it.

The Thunder don’t get much offense from their bigs but Kendrick Perkins, Serge Ibaka and Nick Collison are all very vital to the team’s success and will be even more so in this series.

Perkins’ status is still uncertain but very crucial for the Thunder. They traded for Perkins last year for this specific matchup with the Lakers and for his defense on Bynum.

Perkins averaged 26.8 minutes per game in the regular season but played 36.0 minutes per game in three meetings against the Lakers.

Ibaka will also be very important and not just on defense. He led the league in blocks and finished second in the Defensive Player of the Year voting and has had success against the Lakers in the past.

Ibaka had a sort of coming out party is rookie season in the playoffs against the Lakers blocking seven shots in one of the games. Ibaka is always an X-factor for the Thunder and if the Thunder can get him some scoring opportunities as well it will bode well for Ibaka’s confidence on both ends of the floor.

Ibaka had the impossible task of guarding Dirk Nowitzki in Round 1 so it will be somewhat easier checking Gasol now who hasn’t been playing his best ball of late.

In three games against the Lakers this season, Ibaka averaged 12.3 points, 12.0 rebounds and 4.3 blocks. He steps up his game against L.A., there’s no question.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

Russell Westbrook

Russell Westbrook is going to need to be huge in this series to ensure a Thunder victory. The Lakers do not have the point guards to matchup with Westbrook and he will need to take advantage.

Westbrook had a nice series against Dallas and reverted to sort of a defensive stopper as the series progressed, shutting down Jason Terry. He won’t be asked to play as much defense against the Lakers however.

The litmus test for Westbrook’s game is always his midrange pull-up jump shot. It was on point against Dallas as he noticeably was shooting it with better form. He’s going to be able to get to his spots and take that shot in this series. Whether or not it is going in early on will tell you a lot about how he will play.

When Westbrook is not making that shot he gets out of rhythm and less under control and begins forcing drives and throwing his body at those protecting the paint. He can have success doing this too and getting to the line but it will be a tough challenge against the Lakers and Bynum and Gasol.

We may see Kobe Bryant on Westbrook some in this series too and he did a nice job against him in the last regular season meeting between these teams. Westbrook went 3-for-22 in that game and gets out of sorts against defenders like Kobe or even Dwyane Wade.

It is unlikely however that the Lakers will want to put Kobe on Westbrook too much because they are going to need him to be more efficient on offense.

Kobe Bryant

Kobe shot just 30 percent against the Thunder in the regular season. He’s been playing better of late but the Thunder have more to throw at him than Denver did.

Thabo Sefolosha can play Kobe straight up without a double team which will lure Kobe into becoming a high-volume shooter at times and that’s what Oklahoma City wants.

Kobe was very clutch at the end of the last meeting between these teams and hit a ton of big shots and the Lakers might be able to count on him in situations like that. But since Oklahoma City should be able to contain the Lakers bigs it will be up to Kobe to be a more efficient scorer for them or for the role players to really step up, but that seems even more unlikely.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

Kevin Durant vs. Metta World Peace

Kevin Durant is going to be important like he always is for the Thunder but it won’t be the prettiest we see him play, that’s for sure.

Metta World Peace has always done a solid job on Durant and physical defenders usually have the most success against him. Durant really struggled in the playoffs two years ago against World Peace but he has improved in that department since.

The Thunder did a lot of posting up of Durant in the first round and against World Peace that will be a tough thing to rely on. He is in the best shape he has been in awhile and unless referees are really bailing Durant out, it’s unlikely he will be too productive from there. Durant has a long way to go with his post game and he might be more effective looking to score from the perimeter in this series.

Durant – like Westbrook – really struggled from the field in the last game the Thunder played the Lakers. But he got a ton of open jumpers that he normally doesn’t miss. Durant has been more locked in during the postseason and if he’s getting those looks consistently in this series, points will come very easy to him.

Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

The Beard

James Harden went to another level in Game 4 against the Dallas Mavericks scoring 15 points in the final quarter to help the Thunder erase a 13-point deficit and win.

Thunder fans will know though that Harden has been at this level all season. The key is that the Thunder are willing to go to him down the stretch even with Durant and Westbrook on the floor with him.

Harden is certainly the biggest X-factor for the Thunder. We all know what happened the last time he stepped on the floor with Metta World Peace so don’t think Harden won’t be extra motivated in this series.

While Harden was needed to step up against the Mavericks it may not be as necessary against the Lakers mainly because Westbrook should be having a big series offensively. Harden will still be needed to be a reliable 3-point shooter and run the offense well with the second unit.

The Crowd

The Oklahoma City Thunder have the best crowd in the NBA. They aren’t going to be too welcoming toward Metta World Peace when he is announced as a starter for Game 1 either.

This probably won’t do much to World Peace (you know, because he’s insane), but some extra rowdiness will be a great thing for the Thunder players.

The Thunder may not come out as sharp as usual with such a long layoff in between games so having the crowd on another level will be a great advantage for the Thunder to avoid losing one of these first two games.

The Verdict

The Thunder should win this series and if the Lakers didn’t have Kobe and didn’t have the history, no one would be questioning the outcome.

Everything is happening so fast though for the Thunder. They are still so young and no matter how talented you are, there are growing pains. If Kobe can miraculously lead this Lakers squad to upset the Thunder it wouldn’t be totally unbelieveable.

That shouldn’t happen though. Not to this Thunder team. They may still have some growing pains ahead of them before they can win a title but that’s not going to be now.

After beating these Lakers on the grand stage that it will be on, whoever has to play OKC in the next round should be a lot scared of them.

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Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

Kendrick Perkins has been a crucial part of the Oklahoma City Thunder all season. His value doesn’t always show up in the stat sheet but it’s definitely there.

Perkins injured his right hip in the first quarter of Game 4 vs. Dallas on May 5 and did not return in the game. The injury would normally keep a player out 10-14 days.

The Thunder will play the Lakers in Game 1 of the conference semifinals tomorrow night at 9:30 p.m. EST, Monday, May 14. That’s nine days since the injury making it seem unlikely that Perkins will be at 100 percent tomorrow night.

He could still play though if he’s not at 100 percent as it is playoff basketball. He was last seen Friday afternoon at the Thunder practice walking without crutches and with no noticeable limp. This type of injury would not necessarily make you walk different but when you are in the game running, getting into a defensive stance and banging is when it would be noticeable.

The Thunder made a tough decision last season to trade Jeff Green to Boston to acquire Perkins. They did it for this specific matchup with the Lakers. They lost to Los Angeles the year before in the first round and it was clear that they needed to get bigger to compete with the then two-time defending champs.

In Game 7 against Denver, the Lakers flexed their sizable advantage as Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum combined for 39 points, 35 rebounds (20 offensive) and 10 blocks. Denver doesn’t have the size that Oklahoma City would have even without Perkins but Gasol and Bynum are going to be quite a load to handle either way.

Perkins averaged 26.8 minutes per game this season but against the Lakers three times he averaged 36.0 minutes. He played well against L.A. averaging 6.3 points, 9.0 rebounds (3.3 offensive) and shot .571 percent from the floor.

Bynum averaged 16.3 points, 11.0 rebounds (3.7 offensive) and shot .444 percent from the field against the Thunder this season. Gasol averaged 18.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and shot .465 percent from the field.

The Lakers’ big men produced against the Thunder this season and needed to partly because of Kobe Bryant’s struggles. Kobe averaged 24.3 points against OKC and shot .307 percent from the field.

The Thunder won two of the three meetings this season against the Lakers and nearly swept them falling in double overtime in the final meeting. The shooting percentages of the Lakers big three were all considerably lower than their averages against the Thunder.

Without Perkins, the Thunder would likely start Nazr Mohammed and continue with their rotation bringing Nick Collison off the bench. Expect the Thunder to go small as much as possible too. Gasol usually starts the fourth quarter without Bynum on the floor so expect Scott Brooks to try and take advantage of that lineup by starting Kevin Durant in that quarter as well.

The Thunder will have a much tougher time matching up with the Lakers if they are without Perkins or he is playing much less than 100 percent. They should still be favored to win the series and win it without question.

The Lakers have much bigger issues in terms of matching up with Oklahoma City’s big three and that advantage for the Thunder should be enough for them to win the series.