Young’s late 3-pointer pushes Lakers past Thunder, 111-109

Luol Deng and Nick Young scored eight points apiece.

After a miserable 2015-16 season, both on the court and off of it, Young is having a career year, averaging 14 points per game on 46% shooting, 39% from downtown for the surprising, 8-7 Lakers.

The second year guard is the Laker’s second leading scorer (16.1 points per game). The shot was Young’s first ever go-ahead field goal in the final 5 seconds of a game after previously missing 6 prior attempts, according to ESPN. Since then, Golden State has found the rhythm necessary to become the powerhouse expected when Durant abandoned Oklahoma City to join up with the two-time defending Western Conference champions in July.

Russell’s loss will be tough as the offense has appeared a bit more stagnant and over-reliant upon iso-sets over stretches of the past few games, but this team has already proven to be pretty resilient over just the first few weeks of the season and does have one of the deeper rotations.

Kevin Durant had 28 points, six rebounds and five assists while Klay Thompson scored 26 points; Rookie Ian Clark added 21 points off the bench for Golden State. Westbrook finished with a game-high 34 points on 13-of-30 shooting, adding 13 assists and eight rebounds. Lakers forward Brandon Ingram also made his first National Basketball Association career start at small forward and Luol Deng moved to the power forward spot. If you went out to see the Lakers the last couple of seasons, it was only because of Kobe Bryant. “If I just can’t go and it’s hurting that bad then I’ll sit out”. “I was in the way, stole the ball from Lou”. He loves the moment. If Randle is out, look for Tarik Black and Larry Nance Jr. to have a big impact in the Lakers rotation.

“If he missed the shot, the narrative would have been different”, said a smiling Williams, who had 13 points.

“The more time he misses, the more serious it seems to be”, Walton said. “Coming off the bench, I was playing with the same guys throughout the whole season”.

Damian Lillard went off to almost record a triple-double with 40 points, seven boards and 11 assists, but he was denied by an actual LeBron James triple-double of 31 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists, with three steals to boot.

Th Lakers are scheduled to face Golden State Warriors in back-to-back games on Wednesday and Friday before hosting the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday. “It wasn’t like he took a layup”, Thunder coach Billy Donovan said.

The Nets, still without Jeremy Lin, had a double-double from Trevor Booker as resistance, but his 18 points, 12 rebounds and four steals could only carry them so far. “I was holding my own and the game became easier and easier for me”.

“And we beat them last”, Walton said.

The Warriors and Lakers did not need two preseason games and three-regular season contests in the first month of the season to get to know each other.

It did not help matters that the Lakers injury report continues to expand.