Jake LaRavia: Lakers Respect But Don’t Fear Thunder

The Los Angeles Lakers were able to get past the Houston Rockets in the first round, but now they face their toughest test yet taking on the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder.

To no surprise, the Lakers are heavy underdogs going into the series. But Jake LaRavia isn’t concerned about that.

“I don’t know if any of us really care,” the forward said after Sunday’s practice. “A lot of us on this team have been underdogs in life, especially in our journey with basketball,” LaRavia said. “It’s not really something we look at or we really care about. We’re coming in to compete. We’re coming in to win a series.”

LaRavia added that while the Lakers have a lot of respect for the Thunder, they have to avoid fearing them.

“The thing is, when you’re coming into any game, regular season or playoffs, you can respect the team, but you can’t fear them,” LaRavia said. “You can’t come into the game fearing the opponent. You’re just going to come in and get punked. We respect how good this team is, but our goal is to win. Win the games and win the series. So our mindset stays the same when it comes to that.”

The Lakers lost all four regular-season meetings against the Thunder, although both teams had key players missing in all of those games. Additionally, the playoffs are a whole different beast as both teams can lock in on one singular opponent.

It will be interesting to watch the chess match between the team coaches in this series as JJ Redick will have to make some key adjustments to give the Lakers a chance.

LaRavia will also need to have the best series of his career as he will be guarding Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at times. It has to be a team effort for the Lakers, but it seems they know what they are up against in this series.

Jake LaRavia credits depth of Thunder roster

Part of what makes the Thunder so great is their depth, which LaRavia credited going into this series.

“Very talented, their entire roster,” LaRavia said of the Thunder. “There was a lot of times during the season where they had guys in and out of the rotation and they just have a lot of players that can come in and just go hoop for them. Obviously they’re very physical. Defensively, they just play very well on-ball, off-ball. Collectively, they just got a lot of talented pieces so it should be a great series.”