Before the start of the 2013-14 NBA season, a springtime Thursday night matchup between the Oklahoma City

Thunder and Los Angeles Lakers seemed like a pretty at tractive primetime affair, with visions of league-leading scorer Kevin Durant le ading another title-contending Thunder squad into a contest with a Lakers team p erhaps scrapping for a playoff spot behind a version of Kobe Bryant rounding int o form after knocking off nearly eight months of Achilles-rehab rust. That, of c ourse, wasn't to be. While Durant's turned in an MVP-caliber campaign to lead the Thunder to contenti on for the top seed in the Western Conference, injuries and setbacks (and, y'kno w, losing an All-Star center in free agency and "replacing" him with Chris Kaman ) have derailed Bryant and the rest of the Lakers this season, leading to L.A. d ragging a 22-42 record into Thursday's game, which the Lakers entered fresh off having ruled Bryant and point guard Steve Nash out for the remainder of the seas on. Four days after the Lakers pulled off a stunning upset of the Thunder, OKC r eturned the favor with a 131-102 smackdown behind 29 points apiece from Durant a nd Russell Westbrook. The game would've been more fun although perhaps not neces sarily all that much more competitive with Bryant around. As it turns out, though, the Mamba was present in spirit, after a fashion. Durin g a conversation with Durant that served as the basis for a piece leading up to Thursday's game, Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News spoke with Durant abo ut the way he works on his game, and how he's modeled that approach on his exper iences with Bryant over the years: