Lakers Longing for a Certain #5?

Mike Brown's brother, Anthony, was an NFL guard/tackle for five years.

Mike Brown's son, Cameron, will play on Mater Dei's gridiron this fall, as a sophomore.

The Lakers coach feels football and basketball overlap. He kept saying the more physical team would win the Lakers-Thunder series. He strode onto the court to slap five with Pau Gasol during Game 5 when Gasol took several hits to grab a rebound.

And he spoke enviously of the Thunder's key player. It wasn't Kevin Durant or Russell Westbrook.

"To me this is a completely different team if you take Kendrick Perkins out of the equation," Brown said before the Lakers lost Game 5, set and match to the Thunder.

"He is like the heart and soul. He'll start behind you (on defense), he'll push you out, he'll get out front, he'll root you out, he does it on every flipping possession. What he is basically is the right offensive guard. Durant is the quarterback, Westbrook the running back, James Harden the receiver. But what Perk brings to the table, you can't replace."

The Thunder agreed. It dealt a No. 5 overall pick, Jeff Green, to get Perkins from Boston last season, and he is signed through 2014- 15, when he will make $9.15 million.

What Brown left unsaid was the suspicion that the Lakers' table lacks the roughage to win an NBA championship.

Kobe Bryant wasn't roster-shopping late Monday night, as the Thunder moved onto what will be a tornadic Western Conference final with San Antonio. He did say, "If you think this is going to be like when the Pistons lost to the Bulls and disappeared, it's not like that."

Two needs cry out: A playoff-ready point guard and a Gibraltar of a power forward, someone like Perkins or P.J. Brown or Ben Wallace.