Thunder 120, Lakers 106

The Lakers got lost on the home stretch and didn't play any defense to speak of from start to finish and fell for the fifth consecutive game, their longest skid since 2006-07. They are tied with the Dallas Mavericks for second place in the Western Conference with matching 55-25 records. The Oklahoma City Thunder is one game back at 54-26. The Lakers have games Tuesday against the San Antonio Spurs and Wednesday against the Sacramento Kings in order to get things right before the playoffs start next weekend.

Will they?

"I told them (Saturday) I didn't think we would be able to turn it around in one game," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "We got partially back into what we're trying to do. A number of things went wrong for us (and) we didn't survive."

Said Derek Fisher: "We're going to have some great stretches, some bad stretches and I think this one is tough for us in terms of how we want to finish the regular season. ... We can't get caught up in the way the package is supposed to look. At the end of the day, we just want to have the gift that we want and that's to be champions."

Said Lamar Odom: "We'll fit it and find a way."

Said Kobe Bryant: "We've got to focus on it (Tuesday's game against the Spurs) and come out and do our jobs, which we haven't been doing. We've got to do our jobs."