The Oklahoma City Thunder travel to face the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday, March 29, and this is another dangerous game for Oklahoma City. The Lakers are a mess right now, but still sit in first place in the Pacific with a 31-19 record.
Staples Center
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The players have been up in arms for most of the season and Lakers' head coach Mike Brown is making a stand. It started with the Lakers trading away one of their longtime fan favorites, Derek Fisher. Fisher ended up on the Oklahoma City Thunder squad and leads the team into a game with a team he knows better than anyone.
Fisher played for the Lakers for most of his career, drafted by Los Angeles in the first round of the 1996 NBA Draft. He left to play for the Golden State Warriors and Utah Jazz but returned to L.A. in 2007. Only Fisher and Kobe Bryant played for all of the Lakers' last five NBA Championship teams. He is also president of the Player's Union and is highly respected around the league.
However, Los Angeles and Mike Brown decided it was time for him to go and their loss is Oklahoma City's gain.
Then, Brown started to make a stand as the leader of the team. He benched Kobe Bryant on March 25, a game the Lakers ended up losing. Bryant refused to complain and said he has supported Brown all season and won't change his tune now. Then, on March 27, Brown benched the Lakers' other All-Star player, Andrew Bynum.
The reason for Bynum's benching was for shooting a three in the third quarter that was not in Brown's game plan. Brown pulled him out with 9:33 left in the third quarter and only put him back in for three more minutes in the fourth. After the game, Bynum said he was being punished for making a good three point shot. Bynum refused to join his teammates in the huddle after that because he said he stayed where his coach put him - on the bench.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma City has won four straight, including one over the Miami Heat and another over the Los Angeles Clippers. They are playing in perfect tandem and everyone loves each other. Maybe Mike Brown wants his players playing angry. The Thunder just want to keep playing great.
The Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Lakers tip off at 3:30 p.m. ET on March 29.
Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and is an avid sports fan that has lived in Oklahoma for over 40 years. He used to religiously follow the Dallas Mavericks until Oklahoma City found a team to call their own.
Source: NewsOK.com
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