Even before the decisive Game 1 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday, Lakers coach JJ Redick knew the difficulty of the challenge ahead.
Naturally, after such a lopsided score (108-90), many fans were ready to give up and concede the series altogether. For Redick, however, he’s already run the match over in his head, absorbing anything he could learn in the process. In a recent chat with the media before Game 2 (following last night’s post-game press conference), Redick revealed some of his personal takeaways from the series opener, including what the Lakers did well and poorly on defense.
“We did some stuff that was good, with some of the Shai coverages,” said Redick, via Dave McMenamin. “But I think there’s some stuff within that that we did not do well. We needed to create better clarity for our guys, which is what we used in film today for defensive tape, and tomorrow will be our offensive attack at it. I do think we have to be better when [SGA] isn’t on the floor. They play a very specific way when he’s not on the floor, and they were plus-nine in those minutes. We’ve got to at least be even.”
For what it’s worth, the Lakers did an acceptable job on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. As the NBA’s reigning MVP, for the defending champions in Oklahoma City, he averaged 31.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, 6.6 assists, 1.4 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game on 55.3% shooting and 38.6% shooting from three in the regular season. In Game 1, however, he was held to just 18 points, two rebounds, six assists, one steal, and two blocks on 53.3% shooting from the field (0-1 shooting from three). Critically, in addition to committing seven turnovers, Shai had only three free-throw attempts, proving that the Lakers were successfully disrupting his rhythm.
The only problem was everyone else on the court. While the Lakers were so busy trying to contain Shai, they let his teammates make up the difference with strong contributions across the board. The shining stat line came from Chet Holmgren, who dropped 24 points, 12 rebounds, one assist, one steal, three blocks on 52.9% shooting and 2-2 shooting from three. His performance was more than enough to make up for Shai’s struggles, and the Lakers did not execute nearly well enough to make it close down the stretch.
“You have to be able to execute at a really high level,” added Redick, via Law Murray. “This team just makes you pay every time you don’t execute. So we did it sometimes, and we didn’t do it other times.”
As well as the Lakers did on Shai, he’s just one piece of what makes the Thunder so special. With the help of Chet, Lu Dort, Isaiah Hartenstein, Ajay Mitchell, and others, SGA was able to secure an easy victory, and it wasn’t even their best showing. If the Thunder played up to their potential in Game 1, things could have gotten really ugly, and Los Angeles got lucky to avoid further humiliation.
In Game 2, Redick knows his team will have to be more consistent in their coverage across all positions. Against a team that’s this stacked, the margin for error is narrow, and it requires consistent focus, total commitment, and perfect execution from the opening tip. The key, more than anything, will be finding a way to disrupt Shai’s rhythm without letting the other guys get too involved.
Part of the plan could involve using former Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart as Shai’s primary defender. Besides that, they can pack the paint and utilize zone defense to help challenge the Thunder’s offense. As underdogs in the series, the Lakers would have to do a lot right to come out victorious, but the path to an upset starts with taking one game at a time.
