No team won more games than the Thunder this season. A well-oiled machine with back-to-back 60-win regular seasons flexed its basketball muscle Tuesday night.
While the final score is not entirely indicative of a back-and-forth affair, a dominant team performance nonetheless forced LA back to the drawing board.
Facing the clear-cut deepest team in the league — playing an unconventional 11 guys in the first half — the Lakers’ top item is still the head of this venomous snake in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
A game plan of multiple bodies held up for a while before the reigning MVP took out a scalpel and dissected LA’s defense.
SGA scored a modest 18 points with six assists and seven uncharacteristic turnovers. LA used a similar scheme they’ve done with many stars this season, sending help instantly with multiple help defenders and forcing the opponent to play out of rotation.
Marcus Smart was given the on-ball assignment to chase and stick on SGA. Any ball screen was played with aggressive coverages as shown in the clip below. Watch as Lu Dort comes to the screen for his guard, with Jaxson Hayes as the opposite defender.
SGA comes off the screen with downhill intentions. Hayes never leaves him with Smart trailing and four Lakers with a foot in the paint. It forces SGA to throw an errant pass out of bounds.
A few possessions later, watch as he comes to get a screen from Jaylin Williams and Deandre Ayton meets him at the level. SGA leaves his feet to find his open teammate, with LeBron James perfectly anticipating the pass for a transition basket.
While he hit five of them, the purple and gold’s defense held SGA to just seven shot attempts in the first half and more turnovers (four) than assists (three).
OKC, being the problem solver team they are, came up with some answers at halftime to counter. One was having the screen set much higher for SGA, making it harder to send help and creating more space for their superstar guard to operate.
Watch below as Isaiah Hartenstein comes to the screen for SGA almost at the midcourt mark, which sends him downhill into a patented step-back in the mid-range.
Later in the fourth quarter, the Lakers decide to “fire” him on the catch — send two defenders to take the ball out of his hands — and make the Thunder play out of rotation. OKC made crisp passes out of it all night, as shown below, as the ball swung around the court and ends up in the corner for a three from Jared McCain, who connected on 4-7 on the night from long distance.
LA overall held the leading 3-point attempting team in the playoffs to just 13 makes on 30 shots. It was an eight-point game with just under a minute left in the third before the Thunder put the game on ice in the fourth.
There’s no answer for SGA, as he’s shown an ability to break any defense thrown his way and is the heavy favorite to lead his team back-to-back championships.
You have to pick your poison, and sometimes you die either way.
“Tonight was very simple,” SGA said postgame. “Multiple bodies, that means multiple people are open and just trust my teammates from there.”
Even as simple as it was, the game plan and execution were good, but it just wasn’t perfect. Even then, the odds are stacked against you against a team playing with all the answers.
You can follow Raj on X at @RajChipalu
