Perhaps it was a foregone conclusion that the Los Angeles Lakers would lose to the Oklahoma City Thunder given that they were on the second night of a back-to-back.
Tired and shorthanded, the Lakers were unable to keep pace with the much younger Thunder roster and wound up getting blown out to end their road trip. It was a rough loss for Los Angeles, who has had to piece together lineups on the fly this season, though there are some minor bright spots.
For example, Max Christie has gotten more minutes as a result of the backcourt being banged up and is getting more reps guarding opposing team’s best players. Against the Thunder, Christie matched up against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and acknowledged he enjoyed guarding him, as seen on Spectrum SportsNet:
“He’s definitely a lot more methodical. He’s a lot more physical I would say with his bumps, his stepbacks, his shot fakes, he gets to the free throw line a ton. So it was a good challenge for me, obviously he had a night like he always has but this experience for me is always important coming into these games. Like you said, on this road trip, guarding the best player on almost every single team that we play this road trip, I had a lot of fun. It was good experience for me.”
Christie also discussed the challenges of Los Angeles playing a back-to-back shorthanded:
“I think back-to-backs are hard. It’s not an excuse, but it is real. We were definitely tired and a lot of our team isn’t really healthy right now so we got to get back whole, we got to get back healthy. But they just shot the ball really well and I think we came out firing, I think we had a 15-point lead at one point and then we sort of let it all go away. But for the most part, they played well and we were coming off a back-to-back so a little bit tired. But I think we played well to start and just didn’t really finish it.”
Gilgeous-Alexander led all scorers with 33 points, though Christie had a few moments where he made things tough on the star guard. Christie’s already drawn praise from LeBron James and Anthony Davis for his defensive effort against other guards like Donovan Mitchell and Tyrese Maxey, so these are meaningful reps for the second-year swingman.
Austin Reaves speaks to challenge of playing Thunder in back-to-back set
Austin Reaves is on the younger side of the roster, but even he admitted that the back-to-back set against the Thunder was difficult. However, Reaves also said that it’s not an excuse and the team needs to better overall.
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