Lakers Humbled In Blowout Loss To Thunder

The Los Angeles Lakers put their recent hot stretch to the test on Thursday night when they hit the road to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder, the defending champs that currently have the best record in the league.

The Thunder handled business against the Lakers in their first two matchups, and they more than did so in this one as they got out to a big lead early and never looked back in a 139-96 victory at Paycom Center.

L.A. was careless with the ball early and needed to take a quick timeout after Oklahoma City jumped out to a 9-2 lead. It was more of the same out of the timeout as turnovers allowed the Thunder to get out in transition to stretch the lead to double digits.

Austin Reaves tried to settle the Lakers in with five straight points, but they kept turning the ball over. Lu Dort was hot free deep and Oklahoma City stretched their lead to 25-9, forcing another Lakers timeout.

Reaves appeared to hurt his back and was clearly laboring, eventually making his way back to the locker room to get looked it. Meanwhile, the Thunder stayed red-hot from deep while the Lakers continued to struggle, facing a 44-21 deficit at the end of the first quarter.

Reaves was able to return early in the second, but at that point, the Lakers were already down by 30. Everything that could go wrong for the Lakers, was going wrong. They couldn’t take care of the ball or hit outside shots, and even when the Thunder missed, they were grabbing a ton of offensive rebounds.

At the half, the game was already out of reach as the Lakers trailed 82-51 after an absolute throttling by the defending champions.

As the blowout continued early in the third quarter, Luka Doncic went down with what appeared to be a left hamstring injury. He was able to walk off under his own power but understandably did not return to the game.

Once Doncic went down, the Lakers pulled the plug and emptied their bench to avoid anyone else getting injured. The Thunder continued to pour it on, cruising to the easy victory at home.

What’s next for the Lakers…

The Lakers will wrap up their quick two-game road trip on Sunday evening against the Dallas Mavericks before returning home for a rematch with the Thunder on Tuesday. Obviously, Doncic’s status will be worth monitoring leading up to the Dallas game.