Thunder Rolls: OKC Eliminates Lakers, Moves To Western Finals

The entire Los Angeles Lakers-Oklahoma City Thunder series can be boiled down to one sequence from the third quarter Monday night. You had an overmatched Lakers point guard throwing a terrible pass that was intercepted, then that same Lakers point guard trying to physically wrap up Russell Westbrook and almost succeeding, but ... everything was going right for Westbrook and the Thunder. He threw up a prayer and it banked in.

Then you had Westbrook screaming and the Thunder crowd going insane, while Kobe stood detached with a glazed look of resignation. And ... yep, that’s the whole series, pretty much.

The Los Angeles Lakers were eliminated earlier than expected in the second round of the NBA Playoffs and, as is customary, TNT’s Craig Sager headed to the locker room Monday night for some exit interviews with the players.

The video and quotes, courtesy of CBS Sports’ Eye on Basketball blog, are going to be interesting to Lakers fans, considering there have been numerous reports over the years that Bynum is all but untradeable -- showing a loyalty that might not go both ways.

Kobe’s re-entry wasn’t a great salve -- the Lakers still trail by double digits moments later, with the game winding down -- but the damage had been done. For better or worse, the fortunes of the Lakers in this game relied solely on Kobe Bryant. And he sat on the bench while those fortunes were decided. Neither fate nor Kobe with a mic in his face will smile kindly on the two-minute lay-off.

Sessions went over to wrap Westbrook up like any smart player, and Westbrook still powered through to bank home what essentially was a 15-foot layup.

This, of course, was followed by a typically outlandish Westbrook celebration. This is the same guy who did his gun holster move after hitting a three-pointer in Game 4 with his team down by double digits. You knew he was going to add a little extra flavor to his amazing shot.

Instead, the referees whistled him for a flagrant foul. Let’s just say World Peace was not amused.

I won’t tell you exactly what World Peace said, but the ending rhymed with “banana split.” That should give you a pretty good idea.

But that was before TNT’s cameras decided to cut away to bearded Thunder fans every time Harden did something. These are some priceless images.

For example, here’s a Thunder fan doing something lots of fans do: yelling at a referee. Without a beard, he’s just another fan. With a beard, he transforms into a wise man that protects the sacred text of the NBA rulebook.

SB Nation’s Ben Golliver looks at the series so far and tonight’s potentially decisive game in his preview for SB Nation’s YouTube channel.

Golliver notes that the Lakers haven’t been far from the Thunder in the last three games of the series -- it’s Oklahoma City 276, Los Angeles 274 in the last 12 quarters of play -- and that eight teams in NBA history have come back from 3-1 deficits to win series.