Kobe Bryant went down firing. Had a pretty good scoring night. Scored 42 points on 33 shots, and generally kept Los Angeles afloat for much of the night. But he also had zero assists, and the rest of the Lakers seemed to suffer as a result of the one-man show.
The Oklahoma City Thunder fought off the Kobe onslaught, then eventually pulled away from LA with Bryant on the bench early in the fourth quarter. Russell Westbrook had 28 points, Kevin Durant had 25, and James Harden added 17 points.
Pau Gasol had 16 rebounds, but needed 14 shots to score 14 points; Andrew Bynum needed 10 shots to score 10 points, and Metta World Peace added 11 points. That was not enough as the Lakers eventually fell behind by double digits in the fourth quarter and couldn't pull even.
Now begins a long offseason for the Lakers, where they'll have to decide whether to keep or deal players to keep Bryant and LA competitive into the future.
Talk about the result with Laker fans, hit up Silver Screen and Roll. To check the result with Thunder fans, go to Welcome To Loud City.
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