The Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night, losing 119-110 in a game missing multiple top players. The Thunder were without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander while the Lakers did not have Luka Doncic. LeBron James led the way for L.A. with 22 points, while Jalen Williams had a game-high 23 for the Thunder.
The real difference was the way the Thunder thoroughly outworked the Lakers. They won the rebounding battle 45-37, including 14-9 on offensive boards. They had 12 steals to the Lakers seven, and were a plus-six in points off of turnovers. Missing Doncic, the Thunder were always going to be at an advantage — even without Gilgeous-Alexander — and it showed particularly in a 26-19 fourth quarter.
James spoke about what the Thunder did better than the Lakers in the final minutes to pull away and secure the victory.
“[They] made shots,” LeBron said. “Mostly we got some really good looks in the fourth quarter, just wasn’t able to come through. They were able to make some, get some 50-50 balls, get some extra possessions. Yeah, sometimes it’s just make or miss, and they made more than we did in the fourth.”
The Lakers’ 41-year-old star praised the energy and hustle of Oklahoma City’s top perimeter players, but still felt that the Lakers could have done enough to win.
“They’re number one in defense, statistically, I would say after with a couple other teams. But yeah, they put a lot of pressure, they got a lot of guys that can extend the defense, with Cason [Wallace] and obviously A.C. [Alex Caruso], [Luguentz] Dort and J-Dub [Jalen Williams] and a lot of those guys can really get to the ball and like push your offense out of the scoring area.
“I thought we did a decent job of trying to execute as well as we wanted to and we still, like I said, we had some great looks still, we had a lot of really, really good looks from 3-point line that didn’t go, some around the rim as well.”
But when asked how the Lakers and Thunder compare, James didn’t mince words in any way.
“You want me to compare us to them? That’s a championship team right there. We’re not. We can’t sustain energy and effort for 48 minutes and they can. That’s why they won a championship,” he admitted.
There is no denying that the Thunder are on a different level than the Lakers. Their defensive intensity alone separates them from L.A. And it’s unclear right now if there is anything this Lakers team can do to reach that level, or if they’re simply going to remain a step or two below the league’s true contenders.
JJ Redick liked Lakers effort vs. Thunder
There have been plenty of games this season in which head coach JJ Redick was critical of the effort level of the Lakers. That wasn’t the case on Monday, though, as he felt it was an execution problem in the final quarter, not an effort one.
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