Unfortunately, the Los Angeles Lakers ran into the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round without Luka Doncic and were swept as a result.
Even with Doncic, Oklahoma City would have remained overwhelming favorites, but the Lakers fought in all four games. Thunder head coach Daigneault gave L.A. praise after Game 4, congratulating them on a great season and winning a playoff series without two of their top scorers while also making his own team better with their play.
“The Lakers, congratulate them on a great season,” Daigneault said after the Thunder completed their sweep. “And obviously they played excellent tonight. But it’s been an impressive run they’ve had. With [Luka] Dončić out, with [Austin] Reaves out for part of that Houston series, they’ve been unbelievably resourceful.
“I have high respect for JJ Redick and their staff. And every series seems to teach your team lessons, and they throw a lot of pitches at us. I think we’re a better team at the end of the series than we were at the beginning, and that’s a credit to them. Just a tip of the hat to them. Deep respect.”
It is hard to repeat as champions in today’s NBA given the parity, but the Thunder are a well-oiled machine and they appear to be in position to go back-to-back. However, Daigneault still thinks his team learned some lessons despite sweeping Los Angeles.
“Yeah, I think the pitches of a lot of mixing defenses. That’s about as aggressively as we’ve been double-teamed out on the floor in a while,” he said.
“Certainly, in a playoff series. It was similar to Denver playing that much zone in a playoff series a year ago. And it really had us having to sharpen our attacks, but I thought we did a great job of that. I thought tonight, down the stretch, we had some big-time plays [with] high-lows, traps and we had a dunk for Chet [Holmgren]. Made another one [with] the go-ahead basket for Chet. Ajay [Mitchell] had a wide-open three. That was a great attack, and I just thought we showed great execution of that.
“So, I think we’re a lot better in that area than we were coming into the series.”
Lakers head coach JJ Redick put together the best game plan he could with the personnel he had and Oklahoma City took time to figure out their defensive schemes. With Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs looming as a Western Conference Finals opponent, the Thunder will certainly have their work cut out for them.
For the Lakers, they took some major steps forward this season, including Redick as a head coach. They will now spend the offseason figuring out how they can get on the Thunder’s level though, which will not be an easy task.
Luka Doncic feels ‘very comfortable’ as member of Lakers
This offseason is an important one as the Lakers look to retool their roster to help Doncic compete for championships. This year was an MVP-caliber season for Doncic, so the front office needs to surround him with more talent.
Despite originally being shocked by the trade, the Slovenian star shared that he feels ‘very comfortable’ with this organization after his first full season in purple and gold.
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