The Los Angeles Lakers have fought their way to the second round of the NBA playoffs by blowing out the Houston Rockets in Game 6.
L.A. took a commanding 3-0 series lead against Houston, but allowed them to make things interesting by winning two straight. However, Los Angeles handled business and now their next opponent is the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
Despite a bit of a scare provided by the Rockets, the Lakers managed to pull off an upset as they began the series without Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic. Granted, Kevin Durant missed five of the six games, but Houston seemingly still had a talent advantage with Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson.
Reaves returned for Game 5 and looked even better in Game 6 with 15 points on 7-for-14 shooting from the field. Head coach JJ Redick will continue to need all hands on deck as the Lakers will be even heavier underdogs for their next playoff matchup.
For Oklahoma City, they took care of business against the eighth-seeded Phoenix Suns in a sweep and continued to show their two-way dominance. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander showcased why he deserves to be a back-to-back MVP, as he is averaging 33.8 points and eight assists on 55.1% from the field this postseason.
By the Thunder sweeping Phoenix, they kicked their feet up and got to watch the Lakers and Rockets fight it out. And luckily after an extremely physical series, L.A. will get three days of rest before Game 1 is played on Tuesday.
It is great for Reaves to get two games under his belt before taking on the Thunder and James needs these days off after shouldering a ton of responsibility through the first round. Also, while Doncic is not expected to be ready for the start of the second round, it buys a bit more time for him to potentially come back at some point in the series.
Gilgeous-Alexander admitted that he was keeping tabs on the Lakers and Rockets series, so he will surely be ready to go. Oklahoma City manhandled Los Angeles in their regular season series, especially in Paycom Center. In terms of physicality, the Thunder ramp up the pressure even more than Houston, so the Lakers need to find a way to generate quality offense despite that.
The defending champions will no doubt be looking forward to trying to embarrass the Lakers once again, so playing clean basketball is of utmost importance. They will be physical and attempt to rattle them from the get-go.
Here is the schedule for the series between the Lakers and Thunder. The NBA has not yet announced tipoff times or TV information.
Thunder vs. Lakers playoff schedule
Game 1: Tuesday, May 5, Paycom Center
Game 2: Thursday, May 7, Paycom Center
Game 3: Saturday, May 9, Crypto.com Arena
Game 4: Monday, May 11, Crypto.com Arena
Game 5*: Wednesday, May 13, Paycom Center
Game 6*: Saturday, May 16, Crypto.com Arena
Game 7*: Monday, May 18, Paycom Center
*If necessary
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