I’m on record with my sad decision that the Lakers won’t defend their NBA championship this year. They don’t beat Cleveland in the Finals.

But these Lakers are shaky enough that their fans ought to be worried … right now.

That is the Oklahoma City Thunder coming to town, and they have the league’s leading scorer (no, it wasn’t LeBron) and the best young team in the league.

This erratic Lakers team, losers of six of their last nine … could be gone in this round.

Here are concepts that creep me out about this matchup:

1. Kevin Durant. The guy is only 22 but he led the league in scoring (30.1 ppg), free-throw attempts, field-goal attempts and is, basically, the league’s most imposing offensive player who isn’t LBJ. This is his first turn in the playoffs, and it doesn’t get bigger than the Lakers. He could just go off on Ron Artest, who is the Lakers best/only hope for staying with him.

2. Kobe Bryant. He is 32 in human years, about 45 in basketball years. It’s almost easier, about now, to identify the parts of his body that do not hurt.  (I believe his left hand is pretty much OK and one of his ankles. Right? Left?) He’s battered and beaten, and sat out four of the team’s last five games so he could take a flight over to Lourdes. Here is the key stat: Kobe has played 1,196 NBA games in his career. NBA history seems to indicate a sharp decline can be expected of every player after his odometer turns over to 1,000 in games played, and Kobe went over that in the 2007 playoffs. Yes. Three years ago. Clearly, his production hasn’t collapsed. Yet. But he has lots and lots — and lots — of miles on him. Games wear a body down. They do.

–Thabo Sefolosha. OKC 2-guard. The generic Lakers fan (just about every Angeleno, that is) may never have heard of the guy, but he is emerging as one of the league’s top Kobe-stoppers. It was Sefolosha who was mostly responsible for that 4-for-11, 11-point stinker of a Kobe performance in OKC’s 91-75 blowout victory last month. Quick, strong, long, he will make Kobe work.

–Derek Fisher and Russell Westbrook. This is, what, the fourth or fifth time the Lakers have gone into the postseason worried about D-Fish not getting torched at the point? He was always stronger than quick, and now he is 36 in August. He can’t stay in front of anybody, and that certainly will include Russell Westbrook, the former UCLA off-guard who is OKC’s No. 2 scorer, at 16.1 per game. Westbrook will abuse D-Fish and, presumably, the nicked-up Jordan Farmar as well.  (Maybe Shannon Brown can slow him?) Meanwhile, about all the Lakers can hope for from D-Fish is a clutch three here or there.

–OKC has nothing to lose. Nothing. Zero pressure. Sure, experience counts, and the Thunder has, basically, none at this point in the season. But the weight of expectations is on only one team here. And it is not the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Additional fretting: Is Andrew Bynum ready to contribute after his long layoff? Would be nice because the Thunder is a little thin in the middle. … Will Lamar Odom remember these games count extra? Never know where Lamar’s head will be. … Ron Artest won’t start hoisting up scads of threes, will he, like he did in the Houston-Lakers series a year ago? … Jeff Green is pretty good, at 15.1 ppg. Who checks him? Too quick for Pau Gasol, too big for Kobe, and Artest presumably will be over on Durant.

(Though, random thought: Maybe Phil Jackson puts Kobe on Durant and counts on the referees not to foul out Kobe, because Kobe can’t actually guard a 6-9 guy with the arms of a 7-9 guy. Hmm.)

This series just looks scary. What the Lakers need to do is come out on Sunday with the throttle all the way open, and see if they can destroy the Thunder. Bomb them back into the Stone Age. Crush any ideas about an upset right off.

But if Game 1 is close, or OKC wins … uh, look out.  The Lakers’ 2010 postseason could be over even before we get good and agitated aboud the Cavs, Shaq and LeBron.