As Kobe sits out, Thunder takes off

Despite that occurrence, Durant came out and scored 22 points to lead Oklahoma City to a 118-78 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers at Chesapeake Energy Arena. “We were just moving the basketball, playing the right way”, Oklahoma City point guard Russell Westbrook told reporters.

The Thunder had seven players finish with double-digit scoring efforts in the blowout. Durant considers Bryant a mentor, and the two even dined together last week in Oklahoma City when the Lakers came to town.

The Lakers hardly helped themselves as they allowed Durant to post 22 points on 7-of-13 shooting in 29 minutes.

Bryant is one of 34 players in the U.S. men’s national team pool from which 12 will be selected for the Olympics after the post-season.

Scared or not, the Lakeshow failed drastically without Kobe Bryant.

More than six months after he crumpled to the floor while trying to make a move against Golden State, Irving will be back in uniform for the Cavs, who aren’t the same team without the 23-year-old.

“It’s not something I’m absolutely pressing for but being part of the Olympic experience is a handsome thing”, Bryant said.

It’s been five games since D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle lost their starting jobs, but Scott says he will stick with his initial plan of waiting 10 games before possibly adjusting the lineup.

“We just tried to make the right play every time down and defensively, we just tried to cover for each other, ” Durant said.

“They want to get a glimpse of greatness”, Scott said. Aside from Williams, none of the Lakers were able to go get a basket on a consistent basis. Terrence Jones did not have an astonishing game, but did enough as he carried the team after James Harden struggled to score the ball in the second half.

Oklahoma City rested its starters in the fourth quarter and the Lakers were unable to do anything against the Thunder reserves.

Lakers coach Byron Scott sounded amused about the subject, saying “it was just two great players and good friends having dinner”.

Unfortunately, the Houston-LA section begins by going through various nonsense things Reggie Miller said during the game.

A vintage third-quarter performance by Kobe Bryant failed to prevent the Houston Rockets from rolling past the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday. “So I found out real quick the air was a whole lot thinner here than it was in Los Angeles”. While Bryant was sidelined due to a injury at the time and Meeks took the leading role for the Californians. Randle scored two points on 1-of-7 shooting off the bench.