Lakers suffer blowout loss vs Thunder
The Lakers suffered their worst loss of the season Thursday night against the OKC Thunder, falling by a score of 139-96. It was a game that felt like the Lakers never stood a chance in. However, the night at the very least showed aspects of the Lakers’ game that must be quickly improved before the playoffs begin.
Turnovers, Turnovers, Turnovers
The Lakers started the game committing 3 turnovers on their first 7 offensive possessions. All of them came from Austin Reaves on bad passes.
That quickly became a theme of the night. The Lakers had 11 turnovers in the first half alone. They ended with 18 total in the game. It is something the Lakers simply cannot have happen against a high-caliber team.
OKC’s Prolific Shooting
The Lakers, over the past few weeks, had shown some improvement on the defensive end. Part of it was certainly due to some bad shooting nights from other teams. But also part of it was a better overall effort and game planning.
The script flipped back to what it was earlier in the year, as OKC ran away with the game in the first half by scoring 82 points on 61/50/90 shooting splits.
The Thunder got any looks they wanted and got a rare high-level shooting night from Lu Dort. The Lakers gameplan on defense was clearly to help off Dort and make him shoot. He wrecked that plan by hitting four first-half threes.
Wrap Up
While the loss was a brutal one, the Lakers have to rebound quickly. They are still the frontrunners to secure the #3 seed in the West. Now that is even more important, as it would allow them to not see this OKC team in the playoffs until the conference finals.
The Lakers will head to Dallas to face the 24-52 Mavericks on Sunday. Luka Doncic also exited the game early due to injury, so his status will be worth monitoring ahead of that matchup. Austin Reaves was also laboring and holding onto his back throughout the night.
