The Los Angeles Lakers have thrown everything they have at the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, but it simply hasn’t been enough. After a 131-108 loss on Saturday, LeBron James and his teammates now trail their Western Conference semifinals series 3-0.
“The MVP [Shai Gilgeous-Alexander] is 18 [points in Game 1], 22 [points in Game 2], 7-of-20 tonight, and they’ve kicked our ass three straight games,” candid Lakers coach JJ Redick told reporters after the defeat. “They’re an incredible basketball team.”
Credit to Redick for keeping his squad prepared. For the second straight game, the Lakers held a halftime lead, but for the third consecutive time, they were overpowered in the second half by a younger, more talented Thunder rotation. And Oklahoma City is doing this without their second-best player, Jalen Williams.
Give James credit as well. At 41 years old, he has carried the Lakers to the second round of the NBA playoffs despite the absence of superstar Luka Dončić. But without Dončić, the Lakers don’t truly belong at this stage. They may have been eliminated in the first round by any other Western Conference team except the Houston Rockets, who played most of their series without Kevin Durant.
The Rockets were a mess, lacking a competent point guard like Fred VanVleet to run an efficient offense and missing a rebounder like Steven Adams to create second chances. James exploited Houston’s inexperience, delivering a playmaking masterclass while a mix of role players rallied around him defensively. That was enough to take a 3-0 lead against the Rockets and close them out in six games.
But it’s not enough against this Thunder team, which looks ready to defend its title at the highest level. The Lakers are merely a speed bump on Oklahoma City’s path to a potential conference finals matchup against Victor Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs or, less likely, Anthony Edwards’ Minnesota Timberwolves.
“They’re pretty damn good from top to bottom,” James said when asked if this Thunder team compares to the 2017 and 2018 NBA champion Golden State Warriors.
The league now belongs to a younger generation, and has for some time. Gilgeous-Alexander has the Thunder atop the NBA. Wembanyama’s Spurs are coming, and many other teams may be chasing Oklahoma City for years to come.
The question remains whether Dončić can elevate these Lakers to similar heights. Can they believe they are on OKC’s level if they had him? It will be hard after this series. Who has been the Lakers’ second-best player in these playoffs? Not Austin Reaves, who was hampered by an oblique strain. Marcus Smart? Rui Hachimura? Deandre Ayton is hardly a championship-level starter at this point.
Just look at the other side of the series to see what a title-worthy roster looks like. The Thunder come in waves, with competitors behind their stars: Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams (when healthy), and Chet Holmgren. In Game 3, Ajay Mitchell was Oklahoma City’s hero, scoring 24 points on 17 shots. They are wearing down the Lakers, and most of them are just entering their primes.
“There’s a lot of choices,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault told reporters about his 13-man rotation. “It’s obviously a very good problem to have. I trust everybody.”
“This team in-game, because of their personnel, can just adjust like that,” Redick said of the Thunder. “They need shooting on the floor, great. They need multiple wing defenders on the floor, great. They need two bigs on the floor, great.”