Top 20 Lakers - Thunder Game Five Takeaways

Are you there, God? It's me, Unemployed

20) Pau Gasol came out with his He's Mad and Doesn't Want To Be Blamed For Everything face, but he's not in good enough shape or heart to hold that for more than a half at a time

19) Russell Westbrook has adapted well to the lax standards of playoff technical fouls

18) Devin Ebanks gave the Lakers some chasedown blocks tonight, which is to say, something more than Matt Barnes' nothing

17) Kendrick Perkins was in full opportunistic garbageman mode tonight, with Andrew Bynum in foul trouble

16) Thunder Fan loves Nick Collison for more than his impossible whiteness

15) Kobe Bryant is secretly terrible at defense on any number of plays now, mostly because he's saving his energy for offense only now

14) Westbrook's and one make against Ramon Sessions is a candidate for Play Of The Year

13) You will be shocked, shocked to learn that Mealy World Pussbag cheap shotted James Harden after a whistle without getting called for it, which had absolutely nothing to do with his dicey flagrant call later

12) The base rule of thumb for the 2012 Lakers is that when Kobe's scoring and getting no assists, they are a stone cold loser... and he had 42 tonight with zero assists

11) The scary thing about Kevin Durant is how he gets efficient numbers every game, no matter what else is going on for his team

10) You can actually be good in close games while being young, if you make your free throws and, well, have better players

9) Twice in this game, the Lakers lost points at the buzzer

8) In the two minutes that Bryant rested at the start of the fourth quarter, the Thunder stretched the lead from 6 to 14, because that's how little the rest of the Lakers wanted to play in this game

7) Bailout threes from Durant go down so often, they just don't feel like bailouts

6) TNT went to "Kobe's All Alone Now" mode with six minutes left, as if we're supposed to feel sorry for him or something

5) In just 24 hours, we were able to end all of that nonsense about how the Staples Center is the center of pro hoop

4) It was nice of the Thunder to stop playing well with much of the fourth quarter to go, so this wasn't a total mud stomp

3) My joy in this win was tempered somewhat by having to see happy crowd shots from their thieving bridge troll of an owner

2) If there was anything of value to steal in Tulsa, you could have had your pick of it most of the evening, since everyone in town seems to have been at the game or outside

1) The second sweetest day of the year for NBA Fans -- Laker Elimination Day -- is finally upon us