The Los Angeles Lakers had an excellent opportunity to steal Game 2 on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Following Shai Gilgeous-Alexander picking up his fourth foul on a Flagrant 1, the Lakers had the ball with a five-point lead after three Austin Reaves’ free throws. But the Thunder would outscore the Lakers 32-14 the remainder of the third quarter and never looked back, going on to another 18-point victory.
Ajay Mitchell and Jared McCain were the sparks behind the Thunder run, with All-Star big man Chet Holmgren dominating as well. And Rui Hachimura feels the Lakers may have been so focused on containing Gilgeous-Alexander that they aren’t giving enough respect to the rest of the Thunder.
“I think we had a chance tonight,” Hachimura said after the loss. “First game too. But this was the closest we got, especially since we played really good in the first half. I think we’ve been focused on Shai a lot, but we gotta give all these other guys more respect. They’re great players. They’re making all the plays while Shai wasn’t in the game. He only played 27 minutes. Other guys made good plays. I think we gotta start talking more about those guys.”
In Game 2, Mitchell, McCain and Cason Wallace combined for 50 points and it was the run with Gilgeous-Alexander on the bench that ultimately was the difference in this game. In the eyes of Hachimura, the Lakers relaxed when Gilgeous-Alexander left the game and the Thunder made them pay.
“I think we gotta keep the intensity up when he is out,” Hachimura added. “We’re not double-teaming nobody, only Shai, so when he gets off the court, I think we kind of relaxed a little bit. We still have to keep our intensity up. All these guys, they can make plays. Small stuff, rebounds and all that, we gotta get those. We can’t have little mistakes.”
Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging just 20 points in the first two games of this series, so the Lakers are doing their job on him. However, they a minus-9 in Game 1 and minus-15 in Game 2 when the reigning MVP has been on the bench and that just can’t happen if the Lakers want to make this a competitive series.
The Thunder have talent up and down this roster so the Lakers relaxing at any time, no matter who is on the floor, will always lead to the outcome they faced on Thursday night.
LeBron James discusses what Lakers must do better against Thunder
Despite losing by 18 points in each of the first two games, the Lakers have been pretty competitive so far against the Thunder. But they still find themselves down 2-0 and LeBron James discussed what he feels they must do better to fight back in this series.
If you love our reporting, choose LakersNation.com as a preferred source on Google.
