2010 NBA Playoffs: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder, First Round, Game 6

Information about game 6 of the L.A. Lakers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder series in the 2010 NBA Playoffs, with score, recap, pictures, stats, highlights, quotes and Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol performance.

Los Angeles Lakers

2010 NBA Playoffs First Round
Los Angeles Lakers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder

Oklahoma City Thunder

Series Index:

Game 1: Lakers 87, Thunder 79 at Los Angeles   Game recap & pictures
Game 2: Lakers 95, Thunder 92 at Los Angeles   Game recap & pictures
Game 3: Thunder 101, Lakers 96 at Oklahoma City   Game recap & pictures
Game 4: Thunder 110, Lakers 89 at Oklahoma City   Game recap & pictures
Game 5: Lakers 111, Thunder 87 at Los Angeles   Game recap & pictures
Game 6: Lakers 95, Thunder 94 at Oklahoma City Game recap & pictures

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Los Angeles Lakers 4 - 2 Oklahoma City Thunder

GAME 6: L.A. Lakers 95 - Oklahoma City Thunder 94

Leaders Points Rebounds Assists
Lakers Bryant: 32 Gasol: 18 Fisher: 6
Thunder Durant: 26 Krstic: 11 Westbrook: 9
1st 2nd 3rd 4th Tot
LAL 26 27 23 19 95
OKC 27 20 26 21 94
click for Lakers 2010 Playoff pictures (LA Daily News), First Round vs. Oklahoma City Thunder Game 6
Picture Gallery (LAT)

April 30 - Oklahoma City. The Lakers had to suffer until the final buzzer but they managed to get rid of the Thunder with a 95-94 victory at Oklahoma City.

The Lakers had things under relative control for most of the fourth quarter until a 3-pointer by Kevin Durant launched a 10-0 run that put the Thunder ahead 94-91 with 2:30 remaining. Kobe ended the drought with a long 2-point shot and with his team down by one 93-94 and one second left, he took what was supposed to be L.A.'s final shot, a baseline jumper from the right, but he missed and Pau Gasol appeared from nowhere, grabbed the rebound and with just 5 tenths of a second left scored the winning basket.

Russell Westbrook had a final chance but missed a forced 3-point attempt.

For Gasol it was his only basket of the second half to end with just 9 points but it was in part because the Thunder defended well the paint most of the time and the Lakers kept on shooting and making three pointers (12-for-24). He also was very active on the defensive end and grabbed 18 rebounds.

Kobe Bryant scored 32 points, 16 of them in the third quarter when he was absolutely on fire and kept L.A. on the game while the Thunder momentarily found the way to run their fastbreak, something that had caused L.A. much damage in previous games. Oklahoma City won the third quarter 26-23 but Derek Fisher's three with 16 seconds left gave L.A. a 76-73 margin to start the fourth. Fisher, who during the series had many problems when assigned to contain Russell Westbrook (21 points), had 11 points that included three of six 3-pointers and 6 assists. Shannon Brown added 11 points in 15 minutes and despite nobody else scored more than 11 many players made timely contributions and the bench as a group provided 30 points.

For Durant, the NBA's youngest scoring champion, it was a very hard night. Maybe the worst in a series that wasn't good for him at all. Artest got into his head from game 1 and by game 6 he had Durant completely dominated. Despite leading his team with 26 points, KD got most of them from the free throw line, missing 18 of 23 field goal attempts, something very unusual for him and the third worst performance in NBA playoffs history with 20 field goals attempted.

This way the Lakers defeated a very young group of players that gave them more than one headache with their speed and their team defense and that has a bright future ahead.

L.A. advanced to the Conference semifinals where they will play the Utah Jazz who have won their series with Denver 4-2.

The Quotes

Phil Jackson (LAL Coach): "This is the playoffs. This is what it's about. When you have teams that have won 50 games in the course of a season like this Thunder team did, they have a sense of pride about them. They can play a game that's obviously not far off of what our mark is or was this season. We said it was going to be tough, and it was a tough series."

Kobe Bryant (Lakers): "Pau didn't quit on the play. He just kept playing. He's done that numerous times in the playoffs. Last year I missed a couple of shots, but he's right there to follow it up."

Pau Gasol (Lakers): "It was tough to get a bucket because both defenses were just playing super hard and giving it all out there. The last shot, I kept battling, kept hustling. I didn't have a good second half, I didn't have my best shooting night but I continued to work and continued to be effective rebounding and just keeping balls alive. Luckily, I pursued that ball and put it in and we won the ballgame."

Ron Artest (Lakers): "Everyone expected us to be this greatest team since sliced bread, but we aren't playing like that. It's great for us to get through it and understand that we're not the best thing since sliced bread. We actually have to work."

Kevin Durant (Thunder): "I'm a competitor. I want to win every game I play. I want to be a champion, and stuff like this hurts. I work so hard, we work so hard as a group, that I think that every time we step on the floor we should win."

Highlights

Los Angeles Lakers Oklahoma City Thunder
Leaders: Pts Reb Ast St Bl More
Kobe Bryant 32 7 3 - - 5 TO
Derek Fisher 11 - 6 1 -  
Shannon Brown 11 1 - - -  
Pau Gasol 9 18 3 - 2  
Lamar Odom 9 7 2 - 3  
Leaders: Pts Reb Ast St Bl More
Kevin Durant 26 6 3 - 1 5/23 fg
R. Westbrook 21 5 9 3 -  
Jeff Green 16 3 3 1 1  
Nenad Krstic 11 11 2 - -  
Serge Ibaka 10 8 - - 1  

Complete Boxscore

LOS ANGELES LAKERS
Starters Min FG 3P FT Off Def Reb Ast Stl Blk TO PF +/- Pts 
Ron Artest, SF 40 3-10 1-5 0-0 1 2 3 3 2 1 1 2 -6 7
Pau Gasol, PF 39 4-11 0-0 1-2 5 13 18 3 0 2 2 2 -2 9
Andrew Bynum, C 27 3-6 0-0 0-0 2 2 4 0 1 2 3 1 +4 6
Kobe Bryant, SG 36 12-25 3-4 5-7 1 6 7 3 0 0 5 4 +1 32
Derek Fisher, PG 29 4-8 3-6 0-0 0 0 0 6 1 0 1 4 0 11
Bench Min FG 3P FT Off Def Reb Ast Stl Blk TO PF +/- Pts 
Lamar Odom, PF 30 4-8 1-3 0-1 0 7 7 2 0 3 0 5 -6 9
Josh Powell, C 3 0-0 0-0 2-2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 +3 2
Luke Walton, SF 11 2-3 1-2 0-0 0 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 +5 5
Shannon Brown, PG 15 4-5 2-2 1-2 1 0 1 0 0 0 3 2 -1 11
Jordan Farmar, PG 11 1-3 1-2 0-0 0 1 1 4 0 0 0 1 +7 3
Adam Morrison, SF DNP COACH'S DECISION
D.J. Mbenga, C DNP COACH'S DECISION
Totals 37-79 12-24 9-14 10 33 43 23 4 8 15 21   95
Percentages:   46.8% 50.0% 64.3%
OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER
Starters Min FG 3P FT Off Def Reb Ast Stl Blk TO PF +/- Pts 
Jeff Green, F 42 6-12 2-6 2-2 0 3 3 3 1 1 2 3 -6 16
Kevin Durant, SF 42 5-23 2-5 14-15 1 5 6 3 0 1 1 4 +4 26
Nenad Krstic, C 29 4-10 0-0 3-3 4 7 11 2 0 0 1 2 0 11
Thabo Sefolosha, SG 13 2-3 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 3 -5 4
Russell Westbrook, PG 42 7-20 1-6 6-7 2 3 5 9 3 0 0 2 +2 21
Bench Min FG 3P FT Off Def Reb Ast Stl Blk TO PF +/- Pts 
Nick Collison, PF 23 2-5 0-0 0-0 4 2 6 0 0 0 1 2 +4 4
Eric Maynor, PG 6 0-3 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 -3 0
James Harden, G 13 1-3 0-1 0-0 0 2 2 2 2 0 0 1 -1 2
Serge Ibaka, PF 30 4-6 0-0 2-4 2 6 8 0 0 1 0 2 0 10
Kevin Ollie, PG DNP COACH'S DECISION
Etan Thomas, C DNP COACH'S DECISION
Kyle Weaver, SG DNP COACH'S DECISION
Totals 31-85 5-19 27-31 13 29 42 21 7 4 6 19   94
Percentages: 36.5% 26.3% 87.1%

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