The Oklahoma City Thunder opened Game 1 against the Los Angeles Lakers with more of the same suffocating defense, riding it to a 108-90 blowout victory Tuesday and a 1-0 lead in this Western Conference semifinals series.
Chet Holmgren (team-high 24 points), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Ajay Mitchell, starting in place of the injured Jalen Williams, combined to score 60 points. Oklahoma City held Los Angeles to 37 second-half points and took the lead for good with 38 seconds remaining in the first quarter. The Thunder shot 49.4 percent from the field, 43.3 percent from the 3-point line and 91.7 percent from the free-throw line.
LeBron James scored a game-high 27 points to lead the Lakers, who played without injured guard Luka Dončić.
Here are some takeaways with Game 2 set for Thursday night in Oklahoma City.
SGA struggles, but it hardly matters
Those who tuned into the Thunder’s win Tuesday watched Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s worst ball-control game since last June’s NBA Finals. He tallied six turnovers, his most since Game 6 of that series. The Lakers relentlessly doubled him, meeting him close to halfcourt, and tethered his movements with their perimeter defenders. And yet, he still added 18 points on 16 shots.
You get only so many glimpses at vulnerability from SGA. That the Thunder stormed off with a convincing win, regardless of their superstar’s processing, should feel terrifying. The Lakers forced SGA to second-guess his decisions and commit blunders. But Gilgeous-Alexander remains an efficient ball handler and a quick learner, having seen virtually every coverage. — Joel Lorenzi, Thunder writer
Lakers show they can (maybe) hang
The Lakers entered Game 1 as massive underdogs, no reasonable people outside of their organization believing they’d have much of a chance in the series. Asked about what’s driven his belief that the Lakers can pull this off, coach JJ Redick said he trusts in the Lakers’ ability to execute, something he saw after the Lakers lost Austin Reaves and Luka Dončić and also something he saw in the first round against the Rockets. “This is a different team … the best team, and it’s going to require more,” Redick said.
LeBron James showed in the first quarter that he could get the Lakers close, but for them to be more than competitive, they need to execute much better on the offensive side of the ball. Austin Reaves can’t shoot 3 of 16, the bench can’t score only 15 points and the Lakers can’t turn the ball over 17 times. Some of it feels fixable; some of it feels like the tax you’re going to pay for trying to beat the best team in the NBA. — Dan Woike, Lakers writer
Does Redick have tricks up his sleeve?
At Tuesday’s practice prior to flying to Oklahoma City, Redick discussed how much of a priority limiting Oklahoma City Thunder runs is.
“Rick Carlisle is like the master of that — the quick timeout,” Redick said Tuesday. “I’ve already told the staff, already told all the players — I’ve got to be more diligent than I normally am. I like my timeouts. I like going into the fourth quarter with four timeouts. I like having two in the last 30 seconds. I don’t think you have the luxury of like worrying about that. Because the game would get away from you so quick because of how explosive they are when they go on their runs. And they do that to everybody. They did it to Phoenix in the first round. They did it to us in the regular season. Even in their losses, they had, on average, an 8.3 scoring run, even in their losses. So, it’s what they do — mitigating the 12-15 point runs, I think, is really important.”
Redick didn’t have to worry about that in a first quarter that saw the Thunder have a field-goal drought of more than 5 1/2 minutes. But once the Thunder took that first double-digit lead of the game in the second quarter? Timeout. Once the lead got back to double digits again? Timeout.
This was the first time the Lakers weren’t down 30-plus points at halftime in Oklahoma City. When the Lakers went on an 8-2 run in the third quarter, it was only a 69-65 lead for Oklahoma City.
But when Thunder went on a 7-0 lead, there was Redick again, using a timeout with 4:35 left to play in the third quarter that left him with two left for the game. When the Thunder took a 15-point lead with 10:41 left to play, Redick used his penultimate timeout. Redick did as he promised — the Thunder didn’t take a 20-point lead until after white flag time, and they never got on a 10-0 run. There’s not much Redick can do to close the talent gap, especially if Austin Reaves and Marcus Smart are going to miss 24 of 31 shots. But Redick is determined not to let the Thunder run away with these games. — Law Murray, LA basketball writer
