The Los Angeles Lakers welcomed the OKC Thunder to the Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday night for their final clash this season. Unfortunately, the Lakers fell to a 123-87 blowout loss as they tried to stop the best team in the NBA without key players such as Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, LeBron James, Marcus Smart, and Jaxson Hayes. As a result, this game became an exhibition for the young stars on the Lakers squad, who couldn’t even threaten the reigning champions in this game.
The Lakers were led by Luke Kennard’s 10 points (4-7 FG) and nine assists, as the midseason addition continues to thrive. Rui Hachimura led them in scoring with 15 points (7-10 FG) and five rebounds. No Laker played more than 27 minutes in this loss, which allowed Redick to give his entire bench unit (minus Jarred Vanderbilt) heavy minutes to see if they have any rotational viability for the Playoffs.
This was an easy win for the Thunder, led by MVP frontrunner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 25 points (10-15 FG) and eight assists in just 28 minutes of action. Let’s analyze the biggest takeaways from this clash.
1. The Lakers Might Not Win Another Regular Season Game
The scale at which the Lakers were blown out tonight highlights why the team needs Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, or LeBron James on the court to make sense of this roster, particularly on offense. The Lakers shot 32-73 from the field (43.8 FG%) while going 9-26 from three (34.6 3P%) and a shockingly bad 14-31 from the free throw line (45.2 FT%). It’s not like their free throws would make this even a close contest, but the fact that they generated that volume at the line and shot under 50% doesn’t bode well for the team over their last three regular-season games.
The Lakers will play the Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns, and Utah Jazz to finish out the season. If the Lakers continue to rest LeBron to guarantee Playoff freshness while Doncic and Reaves are recovering, they genuinely would struggle to win their remaining games. The Thunder made mincemeat of the Lakers’ defense in this clash, shooting 45-89 from the field (50.6 FG%), 21-41 from three (51.2 3P%), and 12-14 from the free throw line (85.7 FT%).
The Warriors and Suns will attack the Lakers with a similar desire to seal a win, given the Play-In battle in the West. If the rotation we saw from the Lakers tonight against the Thunder is what we should expect in their next games, the Lakers might not win another game. Even the end-of-bench Jazz players have more continuity with a season’s worth of tanking, so they might have an edge over this Lakers unit as well.
2. Flashes Of Potential From The Young Lakers
The Lakers don’t have a hope of winning a Playoff game without Doncic, Reaves, and James leading them on the court. They don’t have transcendent young players who could take this opportunity and emerge as a lead option, but they do have a few young stars who could play useful roles going forward. We saw flashes across multiple players in different roles in this one.
Kobe Bufkin showed that he could be a valuable two-way guard while Nick Smith Jr. continued proving his worth as a backup scoring guard. Similarly, Adou Thiero might not be ready to contribute this season, but his performance tonight showed why the Lakers wanted a player like him as their only draft selection in the 2025 Draft. Drew Timme played frontcourt minutes with veteran stability as well. They were all just heavily outmatched by the best team in the NBA, but the flashes were there.
Bronny James and Dalton Knecht also fit into this group, but didn’t look as comfortable as the aforementioned young players on the court. However, with three more games where the Lakers are expected to rely on their entire rotation while protecting core players before the playoffs, these flashes could lead to bigger games.
3. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Is The Rightful MVP
It’s important to recognize how easily the Thunder walked over the Lakers in this clash. Many times, playing young and motivated end-of-bench players who don’t get minutes in the regular rotation serves as a trap game. Teams are caught off guard by a different style of play built to accentuate the new rotation’s strengths. However, the Thunder’s machine-like consistency absolutely shredded the Lakers with one man leading the charge.
Lakers fans can argue about Luka Doncic being the better player all they want, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the rightful MVP. He put the game to bed within three quarters, leading the Thunder as their best scorer and passer. He’s averaging 31.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 6.5 assists this season, which should be good enough to win another MVP award as the Thunder inch closer to securing the No. 1 seed in the West.
The Lakers threw multiple defensive schemes at Gilgeous-Alexander in the three quarters that he did play, but none of them stood a chance. He also put in the work defensively with a high on-ball work rate, not taking the shorthanded Lakers for granted. He set the tone that the rest of the team followed, which is why the result was in their back pocket from the first minute of the game. We don’t look at performances against terrible teams as MVP cases, but this is a cherry on top of another historic season for SGA.
4. JJ Redick Needs To Give Rotational Players A Longer Leash
If Redick had come out and admitted that the Lakers aren’t going to be fighting for seeding positions anymore this season, should he have come out with a different game plan? The coach seemed to be tinkering with the lineups on the court with almost every stoppage of the game. It makes sense for the coach to use this time for experimentation to see which players on the roster can factor into the playoff rotation. However, the players need good opportunities to maximize these minutes.
Redick was quick to pull players after even the slightest mistakes. We saw this happen with Hachimura in the first quarter, and when this happened with Vanderbilt in the second quarter, it seemed both player and coach lost their tempers at each other. It’s a tense situation, but given the uncompetitive scope of things for the Lakers without their stars, there should be more patience from the coach in allowing his players to find their own rhythm.
The rotation was disrupted the entire night by Redick, making constant changes in this clash. It doesn’t look like any new contenders have emerged for rotational minutes outside of Drew Timme, but Timme’s successful moments were also a result of him getting more on-court time to find a rhythm. Players won’t always execute Redick’s plans with 100% accuracy, and the coach needs to have more patience with that, given they still have a few games left before the playoffs start.
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