LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers have advanced to the Western Conference Semifinals with a 98-78 win in Game 6 over the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center on Friday. While this was a brilliant series victory in six games for the Lakers, they now face the daunting task of taking down the mighty Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Thunder, the defending champions, will prove to be a far tougher adversary for the Lakers, and James looked ahead to that matchup in his postgame interview on Prime.
“Obviously, we’re playing against the defending champions,” James said, via the NBA. “So, my early scout, obviously we’ll get into it in a couple of days, but obviously it’s the defending champs. One thing you have to do, you have to protect the ball versus those guys. They play physical, handsy defense. If you allow them to get a lot of pick-sixes, it just ignites their home court, it ignites their team.
“And obviously, we know the head of the snake,” James continued. “A possible back-to-back MVP for Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander]. So, we will scout them. But they’re a really full-equipped team. It’s not just Shai, obviously, we know he’s the head honcho. But it trickles down to everybody in that starting lineup and to the bench. We have a full plate once again, but we’ll be ready for the challenge.”
The Thunder gave the Lakers all sorts of problems in the regular season. They swept the season series 4-0, and three of those games were blowouts.
It was during the 139-96 loss to the Thunder that the Lakers lost Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves to injury. Doncic is still out, but Reaves did return in Game 5 against the Rockets. He still isn’t quite at his best, which is to be expected after his time off.
Reaves had 15 points (7-14 FG), three rebounds, two assists, and three blocks in this Game 6 win over the Rockets. With no real timetable out yet for Doncic’s return, the Lakers will need his backcourt partner to find his best form soon.
If Reaves doesn’t, they’re going to be in trouble against the Thunder, no matter how well James plays. The 41-year-old was great in this series against the Rockets.
James had 28 points (10-25 FG), seven rebounds, and eight assists in Game 6. Now, the 22-time All-Star wasn’t quite at his best in Games 4 and 5, as the Lakers saw their 3-0 lead cut to 3-2. There was talk about them being the first team to blow a 3-0 lead, but James ensured that wasn’t going to happen. He notably outscored the Rockets 14-13 in the second quarter by himself, and this game was basically over at the half.
James finished this series with averages of 23.2 points, 8.3 rebounds, 7.2 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game. It will be fascinating to see how he and the rest of the Lakers fare against the Thunder.
James pointed out how important it is to take care of the ball, and the Lakers will need to do a far better job of that than they did in the regular season. The Thunder forced them into 17.5 turnovers per game in those four meetings.
The Lakers also averaged 17.7 turnovers per game against the Rockets in this series, and the Thunder will make you pay for making that many mistakes. They have to clean things up.
As for the other end, the Lakers will have to find a way to slow down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. In the three games Gilgeous-Alexander played against them in the regular season, he averaged 27.7 points on 55.2% shooting from the field. The Lakers had no answer for him, but they’ll take some confidence from how well they defended against the Rockets. This is a different animal altogether, though.
Game 1 will be held at Paycom Center on Tuesday.
