OKLAHOMA CITY — Hitting on a 25-foot 3-pointer, Anthony Davis gave Los Angeles its largest lead of the night at 26 points with under four minutes left in the third quarter.
The Oklahoma City Thunder managed to cut it to single digits in the final frame but ultimately lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, 129-120.
“I thought in the first half, they were a little bit too comfortable,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said on the loss. “… I thought they were in a pretty good groove and rhythm. They were ready to play. They were sharp.”
The Thunder got off to a hot start, scoring a season-high 39 points in the first quarter. After that though, OKC’s offense sputtered in the second quarter and was outscored by 15 points to enter halftime trailing 71-59.
The Lakers started the second half on a 19-11 run as a LeBron James to Davis lob helped push Los Angeles’ lead to 20 points. The rest of the game played out similarly as the Lakers held a healthy lead.
Overall, the Thunder shot 48% from the field but went 13-of-41 (31.7%) from 3. OKC had plenty of quality looks from deep throughout the second half that missed — extinguishing any hopes of a comeback attempt.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams headlined OKC’s loss. The duo scored 34 points and 28 points respectively in the defeat.
Meanwhile, the Lakers — who entered the game declaring this was a must-win contest as they hoped to snap a four-game losing streak — were led by their star duo of James and Davis.
James scored a season-high 40 points on 13-of-20 shooting. He also had seven assists and seven rebounds. The 38-year-old dominated OKC and scored 11 points in the final five minutes to secure the outcome. Meanwhile, Davis had 26 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists — a strong showing considering he circled this game as a ‘must-win’ for Los Angeles.
Off the bench, Rui Hachimura tallied 21 points and six rebounds. Austin Reaves chipped in with 11 points and nine assists.
“They were good tonight in terms of shot-making,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Some of it you tip your hat, some of it is they were a little too comfortable early in the game.”
Overall, the Lakers shot 52% from the field and went 15-of-32 (50%) from 3. Los Angeles dished out 37 assists on its 47 baskets.
“That was the challenge tonight, we knew what it was and so did they,” Daigneault said on Davis’ ‘must-win’ comment heading into this game. “And credit them. They were the better team. They backed that up tonight. They played like the more desperate team.”
It was a rough night for the Thunder. OKC couldn’t capitalize on its 3-point attempts while it was the opposite for the Lakers who enjoyed an efficient scoring night.
“They were the better team clearly for the 48 minutes of the game,” Daigneault said. “They were ready to play. We tipped our hat to them for that…
“When you put a team that’s that caliber of shot-making in rhythm, or you allow them to get into rhythm, that’s when that stuff starts to fall… I didn’t think we had our fastball there defensively in the first half.”
Let’s look at Thunder player grades.