The Lakers top OKC 103-97 on opening night, says a computer

Royce Young -
Why this video? Because I’m pretending that happened again tonight.

I guess it’s better than nothing. The Lakers beat the Thunder 103-97 on opening night of the NBA season which of course, didn’t actually happen.

Computer simulation Strat-O-Matic, which is a producer of stats-based sports games, plans to simulate every game during the lockout and did so Tuesday in conjunction with ESPN.com. John Hollinger “coached” the Thunder.

Oklahoma City, who opened on the road in Los Angeles in a make-believe world, fell to the Lakers behind  22 virtual points and eight fake assists from Kobe. Kevin Durant finished with 36 pretend points, Russell Westbrook had 19, but no other Thunderer scored more than eight. Serge Ibaka did have four make-believe blocks though.

The Thunder led at the half 46-45 but the Lakers started the third quarter on a 9-0 run. But Oklahoma City came charging bac— ah, who am I kidding. This sucks.