The Los Angeles Lakers defied the odds and knocked out the Houston Rockets in six games in the first round of the playoffs, but they have a far tougher challenge in front of them now. The Lakers take on the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Semifinals, and franchise legend Magic Johnson shared the keys to pulling off the upset on X on Monday.
“My Lakers have an uphill battle going against the reigning World Champions OKC and SGA, who in my mind was the MVP of the First Round of the Playoffs! To beat OKC, we have to find a way to not turn the ball over as much as we did against the Rockets and play great on both ends of the floor – so who’s going to step up and provide scoring to help LeBron and Austin? One thing we all know is OKC can score the basketball, so the Lakers are going to have to play some of their best basketball!”
Protecting the ball was what Lakers superstar LeBron James brought up as well when he looked ahead to this Thunder matchup after the 98-78 Game 6 win over the Rockets. They had averaged 17.7 turnovers per game in that series, which is way too high a number.
The Lakers averaged 17.5 turnovers per game against the Thunder, the defending champions, in the regular season as well. It was one of the many reasons why they ended up getting swept 4-0 in the season series. Three of those games were blowouts, too.
If the Lakers don’t take better care of the ball in this series, things could get ugly really quickly. James and Austin Reaves will be tasked with running the offense, as Luka Doncic remains out for the start of this series, and they’ll have to be at their very best. Reaves notably averaged 4.7 turnovers per game against the Thunder in the regular season, and that won’t cut it.
Lakers head coach JJ Redick has mentioned how the Thunder kill teams by forcing turnovers. It very much appears that taking care of the ball is a point of emphasis.
The other big key for the Lakers would be slowing down Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, whom Johnson called the MVP of the first round. Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 33.8 points, 3.8 rebounds, 8.0 assists, 0.5 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game as they swept the Phoenix Suns. The Suns had no answer for the Canadian.
The Lakers had no answer for Gilgeous-Alexander in the regular season either. The reigning MVP averaged 27.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, 8.0 assists, and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 55.2% from the field. Gilgeous-Alexander put up those numbers while averaging just 29.1 minutes per game.
So, it will be very interesting to see how differently the Lakers defend Gilgeous-Alexander in this series. They managed to slow down Alperen Sengun in the first round against the Rockets and also forced Kevin Durant into nine turnovers in his only game of the series.
Gilgeous-Alexander is a level or two above both Sengun and Durant, though. It will take a Herculean effort to keep the 27-year-old in check.
Game 1 of this series will tip off at Paycom Center on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. ET. As mentioned earlier, Doncic is not available for the Lakers for the opener as he recovers from a Grade 2 left hamstring strain. The Thunder are without a big name, too, as Jalen Williams has been ruled out with a Grade 1 left hamstring strain.
