The Los Angeles Lakers lost on Monday night to the Oklahoma City Thunder. L.A. kept it close throughout, but fell apart in the fourth quarter and were outworked by the championship-tested Thunder while both teams were without their MVP candidates in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic.
The Thunder did have Jalen Williams, who had a game-high 23 points in his return to the lineup. LeBron James led the way for the Lakers with 22 points, while Austin Reaves had 16 points and seven assists on 6-of-14 shooting off the bench in 29 minutes.
Reaves was also on the wrong end of a technical foul, as there was plenty of frustration with officiating throughout the night. But after the game, Reaves admitted that the Lakers were simply outplayed.
“They made more plays than us. I played pretty bad in the second half. I gotta be better. Yeah, that’s really it,” he said.
The Lakers star guard said he was upset about what he felt were non-calls on obvious fouls, and that his complaints leading to a technical foul took him out of the rhythm of the game.
“I think I just got frustrated when I didn’t get the foul call, got the tech, let that kind of get to me a little bit,” Reaves admitted. “But yeah, it was just; I thought it was obvious. I told Eric [Dalen], he was the closest ref. If it was anybody else, I would’ve said the same thing to him. I just didn’t know how all three of them could miss that. So, I was just a little frustrated after that and couldn’t get back in the flow.”
Reaves said that the Thunder are one of those teams with a physical reputation, and it’s on the Lakers to match it as opposed to getting upset at the refs.
“Yeah, I mean you would like to think that a foul’s a foul,” Reaves said. “I don’t think that’s necessarily real. I think, ever since, I’ve said it since college, like we used to go play West Virginia. You know going to play West Virginia, you was gonna get beat up.
“There’s obviously some teams in the league that I would say, the more physical teams that play that way every possession might get away with a little bit here and there. But you just gotta be physical back. You gotta try to play next play mentality. But that’s nothing on the refs. That’s not why we lost. Like I said, I was pretty bad in that second half. I gotta be better for us.”
There was definitely some lingering frustration with officials. However, that didn’t get in the way of Reaves knowing that the Lakers had an opportunity to win and squandered it, not because of the officiating.
The Thunder get away with more fouls on the perimeter than other teams in the league. But that, like Reaves says, is something they have to adjust to with their play, not with their complaints.
LeBron James: Thunder are championship team, Lakers are not
LeBron James was very straightforward in his assessment of the Lakers and Thunder after Monday’s game. He said that the Thunder are a championship team and, simply put, the Lakers are not. That’s why the Thunder were able to pull away at the end of the game despite L.A. keeping it close throughout.
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