Stiles Points: Los Angeles Lakers Present Bad Matchup For OKC Thunder
The name of the game is matchups in the postseason. No matter if you are speaking in the macro or micro, who you draw in the first round goes a long way in defining your season.
Some opponents play into your play style fitting like a glove, and others matchups make it look like you got dressed in the dark. On Monday, the OKC Thunder found a bad matchup for them.
Having dropped the season series three games to one against the Lakers, the Thunder should hope to avoid the Purple and Gold in the middle of April. Sure, the LaLa Land Legends have a lackluster overall record (34-29) and fighting for play-in positioning, but they still pose a massive threat to Oklahoma City.
On top of having arguably the best player to ever play the sport, LeBron James, the Lakers' overall style of play detracts from the Thunder's strength.
Los Angeles has enough size to muddy up the mid-range waters, limiting Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's money zone, and forcing him to play in a crowd. When the Purple and Gold lock-in, which you have to assume they will in the postseason, they can fly around and close out on shooters hard due to that size taking away some of that ball movement advantage OKC creates.
Then, with one of the best big men we have seen in the modern game in Anthony Davis, he possesses elite rim protection, the ability to switch on the perimeter as needed, and is nearly impossible to push him out of the paint when the Lakers feed him the ball.
Davis posted 24 points, 12 rebounds, four assists, a steal and three blocks against the Thunder Monday, and there is not much you can adjust to. The Kentucky product is one of the rare players that if he is on his game, he can just get what he wants.
James, the league's all-time leading scorer, goes without saying how much damage he can do. The real swing against Los Angeles will be their role players. On Monday, the Purple and Gold posted 51 percent from the floor, 47 percent from the 3-point line, but just 72 percent at the charity stripe.
D'Angelo Russell broke loose for 26 points including five triples, Austin Reaves chipped in 16 points on 4-for-5 shooting from beyond the arc, and Taurean Prince added 14 points off the bench.
How often will the Lakers role players be able to duplicate that performance in a seven-game series? Who knows, but the threat of the Lakers is warrant of some worry from Oklahoma City.
This is not to say the Thunder can not top the Lakers, in fact, there is not a Western Conference Matchup that OKC will go into it as vast underdogs, but their size and ability to defend in space does make life hard on the Bricktown boys.
Stiles Points
- Jahmi'us Ramsey has finally earned his shot with the Toronto Raptors after reshaping his game with the OKC Blue. Ramsey has become a high-level shooter from beyond the arc to balance his scoring attack, and now has a shot to catch on with an NBA club after being bounced from Sacramento.
- Mark Daigneault was nominated for Western Conference Coach of the Month in Feb.
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was nominated for Western Conference Player of the Month in Feb.
- Chet Holmgren was nominated for Western Conference Rookie of the Month in Feb.
- The Thunder have fallen back to a half-game behind the top-seeded Timberwolves, tied with the Nuggets for second place, but owning the tiebreaker.
- Aaron Wiggins poured in 12 points off the bench making some solid contributions for OKC.
- This is another game where OKC falls due to massive shot variants with the Lakers coming into this game shooting 37 percent from beyond the arc on the season, before going 16-for-34 in this contest (42 percent). Typically making 11 triples per game.
Song of the Day: Leaving LA by Father John Misty.
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