Lakers to blame for crushing Game 2 loss to Thunder

The Los Angeles Lakers deserve so much credit for at least making the Oklahoma City Thunder shift their play to a higher gear through the first two games of their Western Conference semifinal matchup. But at this point, there seems to be an oppressive inevitability that no matter what the Lakers do, they’re simply doomed to be early playoff fodder for the powerhouse Thunder.

In Game 2, the Lakers defense showed up as they flustered Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, limiting his playing time after getting him in foul trouble, including a flagrant foul in the third quarter. But the Thunder have too many weapons that they seized control of Game 2 when Gilgeous-Alexander was on the bench, taking a 125-107 victory in the end, giving them a 2-0 lead in the series.

Luka Doncic’s potential return is the only thing giving the Lakers a glimmer of hope as the Thunder inch closer and closer to ending the Purple and Gold’s season. Head coach JJ Redick has to be wracking his brain as he tries to figure out what else to do to put the Lakers in an auspicious position as far as their hopes of not going down 3-0 in the series goes.

Heading into Game 3, these are the areas of improvement the Lakers must focus on to avoid going down an inescapable hole.

Lakers have to fix their turnover woes

The Thunder deserve plenty of credit for having a defense that forces turnovers out the wazoo. They have built such an elite defense that it’s hard to create open looks, let alone make them. And as far as shot quality goes, the Lakers have done a good enough job at creating good looks — with Redick just questioning his team’s ability to make shots after their Game 1 loss.

The Lakers weren’t very turnover-prone in Game 1, coughing the ball up just 18 times. Their struggles boiled down to their inability to make shots. But in Game 2, their carelessness with the ball proved to be their undoing once again, turning the ball over 21 times and on the most inopportune moments too, no less.

It looked as though the Lakers were going to take control of Game 2 after Gilgeous-Alexander had to sit early in the third quarter after picking up his fourth personal foul on a flagrant. They took a 69-64 lead, and momentum seemed to be on their side. But the Thunder leaned on a defense-first lineup to regain control of the game and that’s exactly what they did.

With 4:50 remaining in the third quarter, the Lakers were down by just four, 76-72. To finish the third quarter, they turned the ball over four times. The Thunder ended up scoring seven points off of those giveaways, with Jared McCain drilling a three-pointer and Jaylin Williams converting an and-one from beyond the arc.

In the fourth quarter, with the Lakers looking to mount a comeback, their turnovers proved to be devastating yet again. They had cut OKC’s lead to just five, 97-92, and then they turned the ball over twice over the next three possessions. OKC pushed their lead back to 10 (104-94) after that turn of events, and LA could not recover.

It’s hard to pinpoint a single culprit for the Lakers; their execution left a lot to be desired during these stretches, although Jaxson Hayes and Reaves were responsible for four of those six turnovers.

This was the story for LA in the regular season; they would be careless with the basketball against OKC and the Thunder would simply run them over. And in the second half, it was the same old story for the Purple and Gold.

LA’s frontcourt gets demolished by the Thunder

The Lakers brought Deandre Ayton in during the offseason to try and aid their ailing frontcourt. But Ayton has simply not been good enough for the Lakers in this tough matchup against the Thunder.

Ayton scored three points on 1-7 shooting from the field, and dealing with both Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein has not been an easy task whatsoever for him on both ends of the floor.

With the Lakers deploying aggressive coverage towards Gilgeous-Alexander, LA has needed rangy defenders so they could rotate towards open shooters, and Ayton does not have enough foot speed to defend in space the way the Lakers have needed him to.

While Ayton hasn’t been very good, Hayes might be even worse. He killed all momentum for the Lakers in the third quarter after turning the ball over on back-to-back possessions, and he racked up five fouls in 15 minutes.

The Thunder frontcourt, meanwhile, has been on a roll, with Holmgren being the best player in the series thus far. The Lakers need their centers to be better to stand a little chance at pulling off an upset.

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