While it doesn\u2019t make the losses feel any more frustrating in the moment, there is something comforting in the long run knowing that the team you\u2019re losing to is just a better team.<\/p>\n
It was apparent before Saturday, but Game 3 made it abundantly clear that the Lakers are simply levels below the Thunder. LA has made mistakes at times, but OKC is relentless and punishes them every time.<\/p>\n
Normal teams make mistakes. Normal teams do not take advantage of every one of them. The Thunder are an abnormality. We have rarely seen a team like this.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a bit of bitterness that the Lakers won\u2019t have Luka Don\u010di\u0107 this series. But against many other teams, this effort would result in a competitive series. The scheme is there. The effort is there more often than not. It\u2019s not been perfect and there are areas to improve, but it ultimately doesn\u2019t matter because they\u2019ve run into a buzzsaw.<\/p>\n
The only question left is if they\u2019re interested in taking a flight back to Oklahoma.<\/p>\n
So, let\u2019s dive into the loss<\/a>. As always, grades are based on expectations for each player. A \u201cB\u201d grade represents the average performance for that player.<\/p>\n 37 minutes, 19 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers, 1 foul, 7-19 FG, 2-6 3PT, 3-4 FT, -24<\/p>\n This wasn\u2019t LeBron\u2019s best effort. He\u2019s looked more tired as the series has progressed. He hit a couple of threes in the first half that were big, but he was much quieter in the second half.<\/p>\n He\u2019s still attacking the rim\u2026and not getting calls. The Lakers need that. But can we just let this man have continuation on one jumper?<\/p>\n 39 minutes, 21 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 1 foul, 7-14 FG, 5-8 3PT, 2-2 FT, -24<\/p>\n The biggest winner of this series for the Lakers is Rui. He\u2019s been a playoff riser before, but he\u2019s been unbelievable in this series. Even after all the attention on it after Game 2, Rui came out and had his best game of the series.<\/p>\n Imagine where they would be without his shooting.<\/p>\n 24 minutes, 10 points, 6 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block, 3 fouls, 5-9 FG, -8<\/p>\n This wasn\u2019t a great Ayton game. That being said, it seems he became a bit of a lightning rod for blame for this loss. Oddly, that was led by the broadcast.<\/p>\n Blaming Ayton for the team not grabbing offensive rebounds felt out of order. He was battling Isaiah Hartenstein on most of those possessions and getting a hand on it. He isn\u2019t solely responsible for rebounding.<\/p>\n Now, having said all that, he\u2019s been outplayed by both OKC bigs and it\u2019s made a steep hill even harder to climb.<\/p>\n 39 minutes, 17 points, 3 rebounds, 9 assists, 5 turnovers, 2 fouls, 5-13 FG, 1-5 3PT, 6-8 FT, -23<\/p>\n It was a slightly mixed bag from Reaves.<\/p>\n The positive was that his playmaking remained strong. He set a new playoff career high with nine assists. However, eight of those came in the first half, a sign of how much the Lakers tailed off in this one.<\/p>\n The big negative, though, was his overall shooting. He started the game missing a lot of shots. He found his way a bit later on, but it was too little, too late. The Lakers just need him to be better, flat out.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not realistic to expect him to average 30 points and be an elite playmaker. But it is what the Lakers need right now.<\/p>\n And when he\u2019s not doing that, his defensive shortcomings look really loud.<\/p>\n 32 minutes, 10 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 4 fouls, 3-7 FG, 1-2 3PT, 3-4 FT, -22<\/p>\n These have been back-to-back frustrating Smart games. He\u2019s doing a lot of the little things on both ends of the floor. He\u2019s making things difficult defensively. His hustle created a couple of baskets on the offensive end.<\/p>\n Those things are great when Luka is around. When he\u2019s not, the Lakers need more and he\u2019s unable to provide it.<\/p>\n At the same time, he\u2019s still doing some nonsensical things. His football pass to LeBron in the first half was a terrible decision that somehow worked and ended in a Luke Kennard three. OKC was forcing him to create as well, and you\u2019ll never believe how that went.<\/p>\n 29 minutes, 18 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 foul, 7-10 FG, 4-6 3PT, -8<\/p>\n Easily his best game since the start of the first round. The difference in Game 3 was that he was aggressive, both as a shooter and as a driver. The Lakers got multiple open looks off his drive and kicks.<\/p>\n There are still negatives with him \u2014 he plays small even as a small player, which gets him crushed on switches \u2014 but this was still a great showing.<\/p>\n 9 minutes, 1 point, 2 rebounds, 2 fouls, 1-2 FT, -5<\/p>\n This wasn\u2019t an outright bad game from Hayes, it was just a really unimpactful one.<\/p>\n 13 minutes, 4 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 turnovers, 1 foul, 1-3 FG, 0-1 3PT, 2-3 FT, +0<\/p>\n Adou got Jake LaRavia\u2019s spot in the rotation and was largely good. There were some chaotic moments, like blowing a wide open dunk and then getting bailed out by a foul call right after. But he grabbed eight boards, played decent defense and wasn\u2019t awful. I\u2019d suspect he gets time again in Game 4.<\/p>\n 8 minutes, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 2 turnovers, 1 foul, 0-1 FG, -1<\/p>\n It was a bit of a surprise to see Kleber get minutes. It was even more surprising that he got them without another big on the floor. And those minutes went terribly. He turned the ball over, bobbled a pass out of bounds and set an illegal screen in consecutive possessions.<\/p>\n Dalton Knecht, Bronny James, Nick Smith Jr.<\/p>\n Only minutes in garbage time for this group.<\/p>\n Redick is coaching one hell of a series. For a third straight game, they got Shai Gilgeous-Alexander out of rhythm as he finished 7-20 from the field. They\u2019ve found some things that work offensively in spreading the Thunder out and finding shooters.<\/p>\n He changed up rotations today and found something that worked in Adou and something that didn\u2019t in Kleber. But given where the team was in the game and series, you can\u2019t blame him for trying something.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, it\u2019s just obvious the team isn\u2019t good enough.<\/p>\n Saturday\u2019s DNPs: Jarred Vanderbilt, Jake LaRavia<\/p>\n Saturday\u2019s inactives: Luka Don\u010di\u0107<\/p>\n You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude<\/a> or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social<\/a>.<\/p>\n