The Lakers must have heeded those words on Monday night, as Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinal series was nothing short of a bloodbath. Oklahoma City took a 15-point lead into halftime … and then it got ugly. The Thunder outscored the Lakers by 15 points in the third quarter, thereby making the fourth quarter academic.

Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant combined for 52 points, 15 rebounds and 13 assists in the blowout victory.

Los Angeles played for the fifth time in nine nights, and it showed. The quick-hit, fast-paced Oklahoma City offense controlled the pace, shot the lights out from three-point range early in the third quarter (53% from the field overall) and committed only four turnovers, a number that you will hear referenced one million times in the next 48 hours.

Everyone waited for the response to Metta World Peace (Ron Artest) in Oklahoma City following the James Harden incident from the regular season. His “I don’t shake hands with subs” ranks among the greatest one-liners that we’ve heard in quite some time. Embrace your inner villain, I say. Harden scored 17 points on 4-for-11 shooting with nine free throws.

All season, the knock on the Lakers (inconsistent play from their 7-footers aside) was their bench. That wasn’t the case on Monday night. The Lakers’ starters all finished the game with a +/- of -19 or worse.

Blame it on tired legs from the Lakers, if you must. The Thunder certainly exhibited no rust, as some might have anticipated, coming out of their extended break. Fresh legs, young legs and hot shooting — a recipe for disaster if you’re a fan of the Lakers.

I posted this to my Twitter account (@swollendome):

At least Kobe, Bynum & Gasol only had to play 32, 30 and 30 minutes, respectively … #silverlinings

Game 2 is set for Wednesday. Mike Brown, under fire for needing seven games to eliminate the Nuggets, is going to need an answer for Russell Westbrook.

Fans of the Los Angeles Lakers eagerly anticipated Thursday’s trade deadline. For weeks, local newspaper columnists, radio and television personalities shouted from the rooftops about the team’s need for a point guard. They pondered what appeared to be the likely departure of Pau Gasol and dissected his every movement on the court while questioning his focus and “emotional state.”

As the countdown clicked down into the final minutes, fans celebrated the arrival of Ramon Sessions from the Cleveland Cavaliers (10.5 points and 5.2 assists per game). They held their collective breath in anticipation of a note from Chris Mannix, Adrian Wojnarowski or another NBA reporter to trumpet the arrival of Michael Beasley or another big chip in exchange for the aforementioned Gasol. The myriad stories and starts and stops concerning Dwight Howard provided some extra drama.

The trumpets might have sounded, but you’d swear they were playing “Taps” by the tone of the local broadcasters and callers. Any happiness about the acquisition of Sessions was muted by the amount of hand-wringing over the loss of Derek Fisher. Of course, that flew squarely in the face of months of pining for a “real” point guard and the relegation of Fisher to the bench.

The overall thinking appears to be that Fisher was the only leader in the locker room. I understand that he occupied a leadership role, both in the Los Angeles locker room and with the union. But, the thinking that the team is now devoid of leaders in Fisher’s absence (along with the departure of longtime Laker and fan favorite Luke Walton) makes me take pause.

These are professionals. Somebody’s going to step up (I hate that phrase) into that role.

• You mean to tell me that Kobe Bryant will not lead his team? He may not be the diplomat that Fisher was, but he’s not going to sit idly by. Bryant’s relationship with his coach is something to be dissected (everybody did it after Sunday’s timeout situation), but it’s still HIS team. Phil Jackson is not walking through that door.

* I should note that Bryant did cancel a scheduled radio appearance on the Lakers’ flagship season just moments after the Fisher trade was made official.

• Hell, Andrew Bynum is young, but he is in his seventh NBA season.
• Pau Gasol has had every reason to be salty. He was actually traded earlier this season, yet he’s battled through while averaging a double-double (16.6 points and 10.4 assists per game).

The shock response needs to be taken down a few levels. Everyone loves Fisher. He’s made some of the biggest shots in this era of Lakers basketball. He’s an aging point guard who is regularly beaten off the dribble and hurts them defensively.

Hell, it’s still possible that the Rockets buy him out and he finds his way back to Los Angeles at the veteran minimum before this season ends. It’s never easy to say goodbye. Many fans wanted to see Fisher given the opportunity to ride out the season and whatever playoff run was to come to let things draw to a natural finish.

Fisher will eventually get his spot at the podium and the celebration that Lakers fans want. Someone will start the petition to get him a statue made outside STAPLES Center on Friday morning. It will come in due time.

For now, the Lakers and Kobe Bryant are trying to chase a top spot in the West and make a run at another title with Sessions at the point.

ITSD 2.21

Add to the tepid defensive play the fact that the Lakers’ shot horribly from the outside and failed to initiate an inside-outside game and you’ve got a meltdown at Staples Center. Los Angeles missed their first 15 three-point shots, and the aforementioned Blake went 0-for-5 on the night.

Take it another step down the line. Kobe Bryant was quiet at times and got to the free throw line only five times. He shot 9-of-20 from the field (1-for-5 from three-point range) and finished with 23 points.

But forget about Bryant for a moment. I won’t even get into the Derek Fisher and Steve Blake stuff on a larger level here.

1. Pau Gasol didn’t match the intensity of Brendan Haywood and Tyson Chandler.
2. Ron Artest will most definitely get suspended for Game 3 after his bone-headed move to clothesline J.J. Barea in the final minute of the game. Artest had been visibly frustrated on an earlier rebound attempt and took a cheap shot to Barea (the source of much of the Lakers’ frustration on Wednesday).
3. Finally, Andrew Bynum talked of the team having “trust” issues. Was he speaking of the defensive help, as Kobe Bryant suggested? Or, was he getting into something deeper about the offensive sets and the team’s infatuation with long-distance tries?

We’ll get some kind of answer in Dallas. Artest won’t be there to take the test.

Welcome to playoff basketball.

With the usual smile that accompanies the “why do I have to do this?” thought bubble, Phil Jackson compared the game to “mud wrestling” in his interview with Cheryl Miller. I particularly enjoyed the one-word “No” answer when asked if Pau Gasol had been more aggressive in Game 2.

The Lakers did a fantastic job in closing out and bodying Chris Paul and, his two buzzer-beaters excepted, he was held in check. Paul converted 5-of-11 shots from the field and 8-of-12 from the free throw line (20 points).

The true story of the game is right in the box score.
Gasol was less than stellar on the block and lacked the aggressiveness that Jackson was seeking. He continually backed out and turned to the fade-away shot or looked to pass it back to the perimeter. One play that stood out occurred as the clock was winding down. Instead of going up for a layup or dunk following a rebound, he kicked the ball back out. Perhaps it was wise to wind clock, but a quick flush might have at least helped to curb the chatter about his Game 2 effort. Instead, he finished 2-of-10 with four free throw conversions and five rebounds (eight points).

Kobe Bryant struggled as well. He attempted only 10 shots, converting three, and finished the game with 11 points.

That’s right. Gasol and Bryant combined to shoot 25% and the Lakers still registered a nine-point victory.

Andrew Bynum played like a man, throwing his weight around in the low-post, and putting forth a big effort on both ends of the floor. He finished the game with 17 points and 11 boards.

He was complemented well by Ron Artest, who added 15 points (6-of-14) and Sixth Man of the Year, Lamar Odom, who scored 16 points and added seven rebounds. Those who were quick to dismiss Odom in this playoff run because of his reality show and his in-laws can pipe down, if only for a day.

With Bryant and Gasol struggling, the secondary options needed to step up. They delivered.

—

The series moves to New Orleans tied 1-1. Remember to wear your unitard.

I joked that I wasn’t going to sit and watch Game 7 after investing a ridiculous number of hours watching the three-month marathon that is the NBA Playoffs. Rip Van Winkle awoke to see that nothing had changed. The never-ending investigation of USC athletics … ended. Ubaldo won 13 games … almost as many as the Orioles.

In the end, I invested another three hours and was misera …. umm, entertained, by the final game of the season. I nearly fell asleep in the free-throw shooting festival of whistles that was the fourth quarter. Seriously, that was just painful to watch, particularly as the Lakers clanked free throw after free throw (they would convert two-thirds of their free throws for the game).

It came down to loose balls and rebounds. Period. True to form, the victor in Game 7 was the team that won the rebounding war. The Lakers out-rebounded the Kendrick Perkins-less Celtics by a margin of 13 overall (15 more offensive rebounds to offset the pathetic shooting display). At the center of the action was the dynamic duo, MVP Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. They combined to shoot a miserable 12-for-40, but lived at the free throw line and scored 42 points to go along with the astounding total of 33 rebounds.

The fact that Ray Allen couldn’t buy a bucket, Rondo has yet to develop an outside shot (his late three-pointer, notwithstanding) and there was little movement and ability to get to the bucket in the fourth quarter when the worm turned. Again, I saw the shots of Kendrick Perkins all suited up on the sidelines and wondered how this final game would have changed had he been able to participate in this one. If nothing else, there would have been five (or six) more hard fouls to give and Rasheed Wallace’s minutes could have been metered out a little bit more. I have to say that Glen “Big Baby” Davis was tremendous in this one, providing quality minutes and, well, a big body down low to at least give the Celtics a rebounding option (nine in his 20 minutes and change).

In a contest replete with as many missed shots as celebrity sightings, we did at least get the appearance of Brian Scalabrine for 51 seconds. More than a few Michael Rapaport references were made in sports bars and homes across America, and I just started yelling about “beautiful girls making you dizzy … like you’ve been drinking Jack and Coke all morning.” Seriously, I’m a fan – go rent “Big Fan” with Patton Oswalt and Rapaport (gets you jonesing for football after this rough-and-tumble Game 7).

Bryant won the Bill Russell MVP Award, although I still think they should take it to a metal shop and give Gasol half.

I mentioned Bryant’s rebounding before. There was where he shone on Thursday. His outside shot was terrible, and we can credit some good perimeter defense from Ray Allen. Bryant missed a number of free throws as well, but got to work on the glass.

And, his supporting cast picked him up. Derek Fisher knocked down a big three-pointer. Ron Artest (wearing No. 37 in the reverse of Dennis Rodman’s No. 73 during his Lakers tenure) knocked down a huge three-point shot off of a Bryant pass and did his best Rodman “thank you very much” acknowledgment to the crowd. He also caught a pass while cutting across the lane and tossed up a shot, hitting the ensuing free throw, to aid that fourth-quarter barrage.

Artest had been invisible for much of this series, leading many to start bringing up the name of former Lakers stopper, Trevor Ariza, who was swapped out for Artest this offseason. His 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 steals helped carry the Lakers this evening and silenced the critics.

Some fans will start looking ahead to next week’s draft and the all-important July 1 beginning of free agency. I’m frankly shocked that I wasn’t offered a live look-in on LeBron James’ facial expressions while watching this Game 7. That might have been as entertaining as this slugfest. I’m counting down the six weeks until the start of NFL training camps.

Raise a glass to Kobe Bryant on winning his fifth title and to Phil Jackson on his 11th. The Artest experiment worked.

Now, how much does Phil want No. 12? Kobe was already talking up another run for a title.

Let’s put it on the shelf for awhile and enjoy the boys of summer.

PS – Can someone write the NBA equivalent of “One Shining Moment?”

Sure, they were used for NFL games back in the day, but you couldn’t think of a better branding piece than that right now after watching The Big Spaniard, Pau Gasol, put back the game-winning shot with one-half second left. Seriously, the final minutes were a bit chaotic and sloppy. The Lakers did everything they could to lose the game after building a seven-point lead in the final minutes.

Defensive stopped Ron Artest went on the offensive and made two huge shots (one a three-pointer), but also chucked up another ill-advised three-point try that put the onus on the defense … and Lamar Odom delivered. Odom was an absolute beast in the low post down the stretch and helped set things up for that final clear-out possession.

Kobe Bryant received the ball in isolation w/ Westbrook and dribbled in before launching a jumpshot. Gasol worked his way into position for a put-back despite getting raked across the head and gave the Lakers the one-point lead.

As for Gasol, he didn’t have a huge game offensively (4-of-11 for nine points), but he absolutely owned the boards with 18 rebounds. Eighteen!

If you look further inside the box score, it isn’t pretty. Durant was harassed all day and converted just 5-of-23 shots. He made his impact with 14 free throws. Westbrook was only 7-for-20, but yet there the pesky, youthful, relentless Thunder were at the end.

Kobe led the Lakers on with 32 points on 12-of-25 shooting. Derek Fisher and Shannon Brown (off the bench) both added 11 points.

I know it wasn’t a classic dominant performance, but this is a type of win that defines a championship ballclub. It was not a pretty game whatsover. The teams combined to shoot 41.5%. You got the Thunder’s best shot for six games. They gave not an inch and came out slugging against the defending champs.

If there was any taste of complacency on the Lakers’ roster, the Thunder smacked it out of their mouths in this series.

That hunger will serve them well in Round 2.