Chances vs the Lakers

[slick_watts]

I'll wait until we see the condition of Kobe, Nash, and Howard once we reach the playoffs. Nash hasn't played in a postseason in the last couple years, Kobe ha already shown signs of slippage, and Howard is coming off major surgery. Gasol has had two mediocre playoffs in a row.

I honestly don't think the gameplan against the Lakers changes all that much with the new look team defensively. Dwight may PnR a lot more with Nash and Kobe, that's my only big concern. I hear they are going to run the Princeton offense but I'd like to see it in action before I put all my eggs into that basket. The Heat took a year and change to get themselves into shape, and they were all in the prime of their career.

Offensively is where things change for OKC. Dwight is a game changer on defense like Bynum wasn't. OKC will try to exploit the Lakers backcourt. Whether they can or not will determine their level of success.

OKC offense is good enough to do alright against any team, they were the best offense in last season's playoffs by a healthy measure. Lakers will probably be a defense oriented team. So it'd be a very interesting series.

[Lehnny]

Allright people, I'm very interested to hear what people think this trade does to this match-up. If nothing else, it certainly evens out the whole experience as a team/chemistry advantage OKC had coming into this season quite a bit.

[Krodis]

Unless someone on the Lakers gets injured or Kobe and Nash just seriously can't work together, I really, really don't like our chances versus the Lakers after this trade.