LOS ANGELES — The location of the Thunder-Lakers series switched from OKC to LA, but nothing else changed.
It was still a contest where the Lakers had to play to perfection to win and the Thunder just had to be good enough. Like the other matchups, it went OKC’s way as they won 131-108 to take a commanding 3-0 lead.
There are plenty of reasons to explain these losses. Key starters have struggled. Austin Reaves had a bad game in Game 1 and LeBron James played poorly in this contest. Turnovers have also
been an issue for LA. They led the NBA playoffs in this category, turning it over 17 times on Saturday night.
But the biggest reason they’ve lost is obvious and simple: they just aren’t as good.
“The MVP [Shai Gilgeous-Alexander] is…7 of 20 tonight, and they’ve kicked our ass three straight games,” Lakers head coach JJ Redick said postgame. “They’re an incredible basketball team.”
While the result itself was discouraging, how it happened was even more demoralizing.
The Lakers didn’t lose due to a lack of effort. Rui Hachimura was a laser, scoring 21 points and shooting 50% from the field. Luke Kennard gave LA an injection of offense off the bench, scoring 18 points. And Redick made some adjustments as well.
He benched the struggling Jake LaRavia and gave rookie Adou Thiero extended minutes. Before the game, Redick said he wanted Thiero to bring high effort and physicality. Thiero did just that, grabbing a team-high eight rebounds while playing 13 minutes.
With adjustments working and role players shining, the Lakers were up by two at the half. But when it was time to win the game, the Thunder woke up and put the Lakers to sleep.
OKC started the third with a pair of threes from Luguentz Dort and Ajay Mitchell. Then Isaiah Hartenstein slammed the ball on a Mitchell lob to regain the lead. The Thunder continued to pile on, going on a 15-6 run to start the quarter, forcing Redick to call a timeout.
This was similar to their Game 2 meltdown, when the Lakers went from being up by five in the third quarter to down by 13 to start the fourth. In that instance, it happened when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wasn’t on the floor. This time, SGA was on the court, able to relish his team putting another nail into the Lakers’ coffin.
“Especially in that second half, third quarter especially, they’ve just been killing us,” Kennard said. “We know it. It’s in our minds and hopefully we can get together, talk about it tomorrow, figure some things out, and be ready to go.”
The Thunder are the defending champions, have the best record in the NBA and have yet to lose a playoff game. They have arguably the best player in the world in SGA, and even his struggles have been irrelevant with OKC possessing the deepest bench in the NBA.
Jared McCain has hurt the Lakers all series long and Mitchell has looked like one of the best offensive players in the league, including in Saturday’s second half.
LA just doesn’t have the guys to compete with OKC, who are even are playing without their second-best player, Jalen Williams who hasn’t played in this series.
Teams trailing 3-0 have never come back to win a playoff series. After three blowouts, only delusion at a level beyond comprehension would make one believe LA can turn this around.
Still, while an impossible task lies ahead of him, Redick maintains his message that this comeback can be accomplished.
“Third straight game, we’re right there after two and a half quarters,” Redick said. “We tried different lineups, tried different coverages, still lost those minutes again. We’ve got to be better.”
At this point, the only question that remains is how much fight does this team have left? Will they bring the appropriate level of urgency and play with the perfection and execution needed to win on Monday? Or does giving into a sweep seem far more pleasant than playing Game 5 in OKC?
What is wholly unquestionable, though, is that the Thunder are just the better team.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
