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LAst Night's Action: Lakers Squeak By Thunder for Game 2 Victory
LA Lakers defeat Oklahoma City Thunder 95-92. In Game 1, the Lakers had a first quarter lead to help buffer the swoon. The Lakers had no such luxury in Game 2 playing a back and forth affair that thanks to a Jeff Green missed three pointer in the final second the Lakers were able to escape with a victory. Kobe Bryant led all scorers with 39 points having to rescue the Lakers from losing the lead three times in the final quarter. Kevin Durant had a bounce back game getting 32 points for the Thunder on 12-for-26 shooting, an improvement from the 7-for-24 he had on Sunday, and Russell Westbrook despite being in foul trouble in the first half had 19 points. As noted throughout the entire game the Thunder did block 17 shots, but most of those blocks were ineffective: the Lakers would end up with the possession anyhow. Pau Gasol had 25 points and 12 rebounds while Andrew Bynum scored only six points and 10 rebounds. The Lakers shot only 37.5% missing wide open shots while making 23 of 32 free throws, with most of those misses in the fourth quarter making the game quite interesting for Lakers fans. However the biggest ovation of the night came from some dude who won a ton of money for hitting a half court shot. Pretty or not, the Lakers lead the series 2-0 and head on to the Dust Bowl.
Cincinnati Reds defeat LA Dodgers 11-9. Dodgers’ pitching and defense were abysmal. Chad Billingsley was awful. Given a three run lead in the first inning, Billingsley gave up six in the second and one in the third. However four of the seven were earned runs thanks to his own throwing error on pitcher Homer Bailey’s sacrifice bunt making his 7.07 ERA far lower that it should be. Ramon Ortiz gave up two in the fourth to give the Reds a 9-3 lead, and Ramon Troncoso gave up two runs in the eighth. The only bright spot was Jon Link who was just brought up from the minor on Sunday afternoon who pitched two scoreless innings giving up only one walk. Dodgers fielding was awful. In addition to Billingsley’s error in the second, Russell Martin sent a ball to center field when trying to catch Drew Stubbs stealing second in the fourth and in the eighth inning Blake DeWitt was concentrating on getting Paul Janish in a rundown between first and second rather than Ramon Hernandez who was on third going home. DeWitt tossed the ball to Belliard who dropped it allowing Janish to get to second giving the Reds the 11-9 lead. At least the Dodgers offense was good bailing out the pitching and defense in the eighth inning thanks to a Matt Kemp three-run homer. Well that is until Troncoso and the defense handed the game over to the Reds.
LA Angels defeat Detroit Tigers 6-5. Scott Kazmir never had a good time in Angel Stadium. Neither as a Ray nor an Angel had he gotten a win there until Tuesday night. Not that it was a pitching gem, but he did a good job in the first five innings pitching a shutout. However in the sixth inning nursing a 6-0 lead he left the game with runners on first and second with two outs. Both runners would score on Jason Bulger, and three more scored in the seventh inning on a combination of Scot Shields and Matt Palmer. Kevin Jepsen and Fernando Rodney settled everything for the Angels giving Kazmir his first career win at Angel Stadium.
Tonight’s Action
Vancouver Canucks at LA Kings. Game 4 of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Kings lead series 2-1. 7:00 pm FSWest, Versus (National), AM 570 KLAC.
LA Dodgers at Cincinnati Reds. 4:10 pm FS Prime Ticket, AM 790 KABC.
Detroit Tigers at LA Angels. 7:05 pm FS Prime Ticket, AM 830 KLAA.
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