The Los Angeles Lakers were taken down by the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night in a wire-to-wire blowout loss. The Lakers lost by 29 points after trailing by 34 at the half in a game that proved just how ahead the Thunder are in the league championship contention picture. Marcus Smart — who started and played 28 minutes in the loss — was one of nearly every Laker to have a difficult night.
Smart scored nine points with one rebound, zero assists, two turnovers and three fouls on 1-for-5 from the field and 1-for-4 from deep. He was one of six Lakers to shoot under 50% from the field for the game. And he was perhaps among the most honest in his assessment of the loss.
He kept it short and simple when discussing what the Lakers might be able to learn from the blowout loss as they move forward into the next phase of their schedule, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
“Nothing. There’s nothing you can take away. Other than we got our ass kicked, and we got to bounce back.”
Smart elaborated a little more on where exactly the Thunder got the best of the Lakers, focusing more on the offensive side of the ball as opposed to defense:
“It was everywhere. Everywhere. Making shots, running plays, making the right play, finding the open guy. It was everything. We got to be better, especially against this team. And especially if we’re trying to get where we’re trying to be, we’ve got to be better.”
The Lakers weren’t necessarily good defensively either — 121 points given up and 30 to MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — but it was offense that truly held them back. L.A. will be able to win games this season while giving up 121 points. But they are very unlikely to win anything while scoring 92.
And while OKC has a historically good defense and are looking every bit the part of a reigning champion, those are the exact type of teams the Lakers cannot afford to score 92 points against if they want to take themselves seriously as contenders.
Austin Reaves has blunt assessment of Lakers loss
Austin Reaves and the Lakers got off to a strong start to the season, although they took a big step back on Wednesday night when they were blown out by the defending champion Thunder.
Reaves had his worst game, finishing with 13 points, five rebounds and three assists on 4-of-12 shooting in 30 minutes as the Thunder’s defense made it tough for both him and Luka Doncic.
After the wire-to-wire loss, Reaves discussed where he felt things started to go wrong.
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