Lakers vs. Thunder Game 1: Win Proves OKC Will Avenge 2010 Playoff Blunder

Unfortunately for the Lakers, it's not 2010 anymore.

Kevin Durant is no longer 21 years old, and the Lakers aren't the best team in the NBA, hunting for their second straight NBA title. This time around, the Thunder are one of the best teams in the league, and the Lakers are just desperately trying to hold on for as long as they can in this series.

And after Game 1, by all indications, it won't be very long.

The Lakers, coming off a brutal seven-game series win over the Nuggets, got throttled 119-90 on Monday by a young, hungry Thunder team coming off more than a week of rest. LA looked tired, and the Thunder looked like a team still thinking about that time in 2010 when the Lakers sent them packing in six games in the first round.

Back then, Pau Gasol's tip-in with a half-second remaining in the game ended the Thunder's postseason dreams and took the Lakers one step closer to their eventual second consecutive championship.

Now, in 2012, the Thunder are coming off a decisive sweep of the defending champion Mavericks. Like predators, they are slowly circling the Lakers, who look excruciatingly beatable, despite a healthy Andrew Bynum, despite Ron Artest under a different name.

The Lakers look old, and maybe they are. Kobe Bryant can still take over a game if he wants to—as he proved in Game 6 against Denver—but he can't win it all by himself, just like a very green Kevin Durant couldn't beat the Lakers all by himself two years ago.

Now, a bigger, stronger Durant had 25 points, eight rebounds and four assists while an older, more explosive Russell Westbrook led all scorers with 27 points, seven rebounds and nine assists. The Thunder's starting lineup committed just one turnover. Oklahoma City's bench outscored LA's bench a whopping 50-26.

Even before this game the Lakers looked spent. Despite staking a 3-1 lead against Denver, they lost two in a row and squandered a 16-point lead in Game 7 before eking out the win. They seemed tired, confused and frustrated at the end of their first-round series, and they looked even more so against the Thunder in Game 1 when OKC ran all over them.

The Thunder aren't necessarily going to win because Durant single-handedly dominates the Lakers or even because Westbrook does. They're going to win because of a balanced, cohesive team effort that, all pieces considered, will be far too much for an older, worn out, one-dimensional Lakers team to handle.