NBA Playoffs 2012: Do or Die for Los Angeles Lakers in Game 3 vs OKC Thunder

Same story, different day for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Which could spell an Extreme Makeover: Staples Center Edition this summer.

Their stunning surrender to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals on Wednesday night was eerily reminiscent of their fourth-quarter meltdowns against the Dallas Mavericks last year.

Just as their seven-game escape against the Denver Nuggets raised many of the same issues that plagued the Lakers when they needed six games to close out Chris Paul's New Orleans Hornets a season ago.

Kobe Bryant is still a great player, but he can't do it all by himself anymore. Andrew Bynum is one of the best offensive big men in the NBA, but his suspect defensive effort and inconsistent focus often renders him less than reliable. Ditto for Pau Gasol, though he doesn't suffer from Bynum's foot-in-mouth disease, at the very least.

As for the supporting cast, they still can't seem to so much as throw a beach ball in the ocean with any predictability or regularity. Say what you want about having Steve Blake take the last shot while Derek Fisher was sitting on the Thunder's bench, but the former was clutch from three-point range in Round 1, including a 5-for-6 performance in Game 7 against the Nuggets, and reasonably should've hit what would've been the game-winning shot from the corner.

And don't even begin to blame this on Mike Brown, or think that Phil Jackson would've done better. Brown inherited largely the same squad that sent the Zen Master packing for (temporary?) retirement after a four-game sweep at the hands of the eventual NBA champions last spring.

So far, he's gotten largely the same results—occasional brilliance, particularly on the interior, bookended by frustratingly lackadaisical play on both ends of the floor.

There's a reason why Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss went all-out to nab Paul from New Orleans, and that the organization is still so spiteful of commissioner David Stern for redirecting him down the hall. They knew full well that these shades of Purple and Gold would be hard-pressed to lift another banner into the rafters at the Staples Center as currently constituted.

Unless, of course, they got younger, more creative and more accurate on the perimeter, as CP3 would've made them.

Which brings us back to Game 3, starting at 10:30 p.m. EDT. The Lakers should (and, hopefully will for folks in L.A.) hit the floor running right from the tip and continue with a full-fledged effort to stave off all-but-certain elimination. A victory breathes some measure of new life into L.A. and gives their roster a reprieve, if only for another day.

If they lose, even after going 110 percent on Friday, they're liable to wind up as mops for OKC on Saturday, in a cruel twist of back-to-back playoff game fate.

That would likely be all the validation the Lakers' front office needs to go into yet another offseason in search of a roster transformation. Perhaps Bynum becomes Dwight Howard, or Pau Gasol is split up into a collection of complementary assets.

Or both. Or something entirely different (i.e. Deron Williams?).

Then again, that may well happen even if the Lakers prolong this series. Frankly, anything less than a title could precipitate the same summer result.

Because that's what the Lakers play for, and certainly should so long as Kobe is still ambulant enough to play basketball.

The only deja vu for which LA will settle is that which has them hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy, not bowing out in disgrace to another team that does.

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