Can the Lakers continue to play inside for the rest of the series? If they do, they win, the Thunder just can't match up with their length. It just depends on whether Kobe can subjugate his game for one or two more games (and that's a big if).
The other issue for me is switching Kobe onto Westbrook just glosses over the Lakers' glaring weakness - point guard - and is a short-term solution at best. If they come up against the Jazz in the next series, will Kobe guard D-Will? They'd probably prefer to face the Nuggets because at least Fisher can bang with Billups a bit. In the WCF, if the Spurs get through, what happens then? Where do they hide their point guard on defence? Parker? Manu? There's no Bruce Bowen anymore either. Ditto the Suns. Against the Cavs or Magic (or even the Celtics), if they make the Finals, there's going to be issues as well. That's why I couldn't believe they didn't make a move at the trade deadline. Fisher has been killing them all year, Farmar just hasn't come on like they'd hoped and it's the one chink in their armour that can be exploited by every other legit contender.
As for this series, be interesting to see what the COTY does to combat this for game 6. He's got two days to figure out a strategy so it's going to be interesting.
Two big games today - Hawks looking to right a wobbly ship back at home against the Bucks and Nuggets looking to extend the series against the Jazz.
