OKLAHOMA CITY — As the Thunder prepare to take on the Lakers tonight,
there are subplots and twists, brothers at arms and ones who do harm,
drama and revenge in the making ... and the series hasn’t even started
yet.
The Thunder will see the Lake Show in Game 1 of the West
semifinals (9:35 ET), but it feels more like “The Ricki Lake Show,” just
without the couch and the crying. If anyone thought the Thunder’s
first-round matchup with Dallas was too much of a made-for-TV series,
get ready to set the DVR.
If the Thunder can somehow stay
focused, avoid eye contact and pay attention, they'll be fine. They'll
advance because they're better than the Lakers.
But it may not be so easy. The circus is in town and it's dressed in purple and gold.
The
teams’ rivalry, which started two seasons ago when the Lakers needed a
late basket to eliminate the eighth-seeded Thunder in Game 6, exploded
at the end of April when Metta World Peace struck James Harden with a
vicious elbow that left the Thunder guard with a concussion and the
Lakers forward with a seven-game suspension. Now World Peace says he
will not shake Harden’s hand or apologize.
"I'm not worried about
him or what he has to say," Harden said Sunday. "We have four games to
win. That's what we're focused on."
Thunder forward Nick Collison
said shaking hands is "so low" on the team’s list of concerns, and coach
Scott Brooks said they have moved on.
"The subplots are part of NBA basketball," Brooks said. "If you focus on that, that's not where your attention needs to be."
Avoiding
them, certainly in this case, is nearly impossible. Just ask Derek
Fisher, who won five championships with the Lakers and will try to knock
out his old team en route to winning a sixth with the Thunder.
"Any
time teams play against the Lakers, it just means more," Fisher said.
“There's more emphasis, more spotlight and there's more people watching
and paying attention. But those things aren't important in terms of how
the games are played. You have to find a way to block all those things
out. You have to concentrate on basketball."
That's the issue: Can the Thunder block out the side stories and just worry about blocking out?
They
did against Dallas, discarding the Mavs despite the drama. Coach Rick
Carlisle complained to anyone who would listen, cursed and called
Thunder players "dirty." Forward Shawn Marion said Kevin Durant got
"lucky" on his Game 1 winner, and guard Jason Terry said the Thunder
were like "little brothers."
But that was a broken Dallas team,
still hung over from its 2011 title celebration. The Lakers present more
drama and more challenges, none bigger than the wild card World Peace,
who will be put to the test by a hostile crowd.
“I'm not real
focused on how he responds to our crowd,” Brooks said. “That happened.
It was a bad play and hopefully he has the same feelings that we all
have. It should have never happened. We're focused on playing good
basketball. It's not between James and Ron (Artest)."
Brooks is
right — almost. If the Thunder get caught up outside the lines, they
could suffer. On the court, they shouldn't. The Thunder beat the Lakers
in two of three meetings this season, losing the last one when the
Thunder had no incentive to win and no Harden in the second half, thanks
to the elbow from World Peace.
The Thunder needed four games, two
of which Durant struggled in, to beat the defending champs. And the
Lakers will be just 48 hours removed from a seven-game series against an
average Denver team. Kobe Bryant was sick, Andrew Bynum was present,
but not always in spirit, and the Lakers have relied on the shooting of
Steve Blake and the return of World Peace.
The Thunder, on the
other hand, have had more than a week off. Plenty of time to let the
talk marinate. Plenty of time to think.
"(We need to) get into
some basketball instead of all the other sidetrack stuff," Harden said.
"The same thing happened last series, but we can't get into that. We
have to focus on trying to win basketball games. That's the most
important thing."
Sounds simple enough.
