Thunder 139, Lakers 96: The Day After Report

Box Score | Play-by-Play

Nuggets & Notes

• A marquee game between two of the league's hottest teams offered a competitive fourth quarter, where the Los Angeles Lakers outscored the Oklahoma City Thunder 29-27 in the final frame.
• The problem for the Lakers was that the Thunder outscored the Lakers by 45 in the other three quarters.
• Oklahoma City made a statement with the win, as the most dangerous team in the NBA when offense and defense come together. OKC never trailed in this one.
• The Thunder came out roaring in the first quarter, totaling 44 points, while making life miserable for the entire Lakers team. The Thunder nabbed 7 steals and forced 8 turnovers in the first quarter alone. Poor Austin Reaves had 4 turnovers on his own in the first frame.
• OKC also held the Lakers to just 33% shooting. Really, free throws helped the Lakers avoid even worse embarrassment in that opening quarter. Over 38% of the Lakers' points in the first quarter came from free throws.
• Virtually the entire team was unconscious shooting. 54% from the floor and 45% from three. More of that please.
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 28/7/7 in 30 minutes. The Lakers could not guard SGA. This despite Shai missing a few shots he normally makes–I guess giving the Lakers a little bit of mercy.
• Lebron James: 26 minutes, -37 in plus/minus. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: 30 minutes, +35 in plus/minus.
• Luka Doncic took twice as many free throws as SGA in this one. As a team, the Lakers took 27 to OKC's 13. Now tell me, who's the free throw merchant, and which team plays ethical basketball?
• Luka also had 600% more turnovers than Shai.
• As predicted on the pod, Luka did his trademark "whine to refs and not get back on defense" move. Legendary.

• On a serious note, I truly hope Doncic's injury doesn't keep him out long. Luka has had a very good year, and the NBA needs its stars to play.
• Lu Dort had another terrific start, scoring 14 points in the first quarter on perfect 5-for-5 shooting (4-of-4 from deep). Later, though, Dort had a nasty fall after he was literally clotheslined on his way to the hoop. Please explain to me how this isn't a foul?

• Jalen Williams flirted with a triple double: 10 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists in 23 minutes. If the Lakers had any competitive bone in their body, Williams probably gets the triple double.
• Isaiah Joe was hot guys. 20 points, 6-of-8 from three.
• This one was such a blowout that 14 (yes, 14!) Thunder players logged double-digits in minutes.
• The Thunder just shows up when it plays the Lakers. In three matchups this season (all Thunder wins), the champs have outscored the Lakers by 81 total points.
• I cannot get tweets to embed, so you'll just have to click this link to watch Cason Wallace play defense against Bronny James: https://x.com/HaterReport/status/2040017093404303533
• Spoiler alert: It did not go great for Bronny.
• Bronny did score 10 points. He was the fifth-leading scorer for Los Angeles.

One Key Takeaway

This is what it looks like when OKC is healthy and clicking. Los Angeles was 13-1 coming into this one, with some good wins mixed in there, but Oklahoma City turned the Lakers into a mop and just cleaned up.

With 5 games remaining in the regular season, this is what I want to see. The team healthy and working to find its groove ahead of the gauntlet that is the Western Conference playoffs.

Now, we can't expect this level of play from OKC every night, but it's great for both the league and the team itself to see that just how high of a ceiling this team has.