The Los Angeles Lakers returned home to Crypto.com Arena to host the Oklahoma City Thunder in a pivotal game regarding the Emirates NBA Cup on Friday night.
Both teams needed a win to keep their hopes of advancing to the knockout rounds alive, but unfortunately it was the Thunder that edged out Los Angeles. The Lakers had opportunities to win the game, but mental errors in the final minute ultimately did them in and allowed the Thunder to walk away with the victory.
It was a tightly-contested game for most of the evening, especially in the second half as the two teams took turns trading the lead. There was a stretch in the fourth quarter where it appeared Los Angeles had taken control of the momentum, but Oklahoma City knocked down some timely shots to ultimately push things in their favor.
One of the few bright sides to the game is that the Lakers were able to limit the Thunder to just 101 points. Afterwards, head coach JJ Redick proclaimed that the team is playing some of their best defense of the 2024-25 season.
“I think the biggest takeaway is we have a lot to build on defensively over the last two games. That is the most connected our team has been on that end of the floor since the first game of the season,” Redick said.
“Really outstanding job with a lot of the stuff we talked about. I don’t know the exact total but there were a half dozen to a dozen plays that shot us in the foot even before the late game stuff. We played well enough and hard enough to win against the best team in the west. So, there’s definitely good stuff.”
Redick also gave his team praise for responding to the physical play he expected from the Thunder.
“Yeah, again, there’s things you can build on another game where we got off to a slow start and we’re going to get back into it. Get back into it fairly quickly. I thought our group, and by that, I mean the players as well, we were prepared for their physicality,” Redick said. “We were prepared for [Lu] Dort and Cason Wallace and [Isaiah] Hartenstein. We were prepared for those guys. The group was and I thought they did a good job of combating that for the most part.”
Defense has been an issue for Los Angeles and Redick this season as they are routinely giving up points to opposing teams, especially in transition. However, they looked like a completely different team against Oklahoma City as they rotated well and didn’t back down in tough, physical possessions.
While the extra attention to detail on the defense was well-noted, the fact is the Lakers still didn’t do enough to earn a win. The loss to the Thunder signals that the purple and gold are still a notch or two behind the league’s best teams.
Dalton Knecht believes Lakers need to have short-term memory coming off losses
At 11-8, the Lakers have some work to do to climb back up the standings. One way to do that is to quickly move on from losses which is why Dalton Knecht believes the team needs to have short-term memories.
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