The Thunder are making the Lakers face a harsh reality

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.

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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.

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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…

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Publish date : 2026-05-10 05:26:00

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