![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/reaves-okc-050626-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Austin Reaves, who averaged 23.3 points during the regular season, went just 3-for-16 in Game 1.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Download the NBA App<\/a><\/p>\n The Los Angeles Lakers understand the dilemma they face in their Western Conference semifinals series<\/a> against the Oklahoma City Thunder.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Lakers need to be at or\u00a0near\u00a0their best to win a game\u00a0in the series. The defending champion Thunder do not.\u00a0<\/p>\n That played out in Game 1 with the Thunder\u00a0keeping a mostly safe distance between themselves and the Lakers on the scoreboard\u00a0before\u00a0eventually pulling away for a 108-90 victory<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Lakers were never quite out of it until the fourth but weren\u2019t able to make it a tighter contest before then.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Here are three things to watch in Game 2 Thursday (9:30 p.m. ET, Prime Video<\/a>):\u00a0<\/p>\n 1. Austin Reaves\u2019 scoring is necessary for the Lakers<\/p>\n Game 1 was Reaves\u2019 third game back since straining\u00a0his\u00a0oblique\u00a0muscles\u00a0against the Thunder on April 2, so he\u2019s working his way back into game form. Plus, he took a\u00a0punishing\u00a0hit to the chest in the series opener.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, Reaves\u2019 3-for-16 shooting performance from the field (including 0-for-5 on 3-pointers) for eight points plus four turnovers will not help the Lakers win a game. <\/p>\n It\u2019s not on one player, and Luka Don\u010di\u0107 sidelined with a strained left hamstring hurts the Lakers, but they are better when Reaves averages what he did during the regular season: 23.3 points, 5.5 assists and 4.7 rebounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe easy thing is to make more shots,\u201d Reaves said. \u201cI got to my spots multiple times and just missed a couple of easy shots. For the most part, got to limit the turnovers. They pressure the ball really well and just have to give us an opportunity to get a shot up on every possession.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault: \u201cWith him, you just can\u2019t give him a lot of cracks. If you give him easy stuff, he\u2019s able to really burn you. And I thought we did a nice job of keeping him at bay, not fouling him too much and being in good position on him and just making him earn everything.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n 2. Who else can produce for the Lakers?<\/p>\n LeBron James had\u00a027 points, six assists and four rebounds, Rui Hachimura scored 18\u00a0points,\u00a0and Deandre Ayton had 10 points and 12 rebounds. But the rest of the\u00a0Lakers\u00a0shot just 11-for-43 from the field. <\/p>\n Marcus Smart\u00a0added 12 points but was just 4-for-15.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yes, it\u2019s a matter of making shots. But the opponent has a role to play in a team\u2019s shot selection and shot quality, and the Thunder had the best regular-season defense, allowing 106.5 points per 100 possessions. It\u2019s not easy to score against them.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jarred Vanderbilt sustained an injury to the small finger on his right (non-shooting) hand, adding to the\u00a0Lakers\u2019\u00a0depth issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n Game 1 was the third consecutive game in which the Lakers scored fewer than 100 points. They\u00a0can use more\u00a0of\u00a0reserve Luke Kennard\u2019s 3-point shooting, and\u00a0the message from Lakers coach JJ Redick to Kennard: Keep shooting. They require better efficiency from Smart and Reaves.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe can score the ball. We\u2019re going to score the ball,\u201d Smart said. \u201cJust got to do it. \u2026 I\u2019ve got to be better. It starts with me. I take full accountability for it. I know I\u2019m not the reason we lost, but I feel I could have gave more.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n 3. Expect a different Gilgeous-Alexander in Game 2<\/p>\n The bad news for Oklahoma City? Gilgeous-Alexander scored 18 points (13 below his season average) and committed seven turnovers (five more than his season average). The good news? The Thunder still won, and they don\u2019t expect the 2024-25 Kia MVP \u2013 a finalist for the award again this season \u2013 to have another game like that. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was loose with the ball, had a lot of turnovers,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cThat goes to the rust and not playing for a little bit. They\u2019re obviously very aggressive. I feel for most of the night we got great looks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Just like they did against Houston\u2019s Kevin Durant in the first round, the Lakers sent double teams\u00a0at Gilgeous-Alexander to get the basketball out of his hands.\u00a0<\/p>\n It took time for Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder to adjust, but they\u00a0did. Chet Holmgren had 24 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks, and nine players scored at least five points, including reserve Jared McCain (12 points on four 3-pointers).\u00a0<\/p>\n The Thunder\u2019s depth makes it possible for their main star to have an \u201coff game\u201d and still win a playoff game by 18.\u00a0<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n Jeff Zillgitt has covered the NBA since 2008. You can email him at\u00a0jzillgitt@nba.com<\/a>, find\u00a0his archive here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0follow him on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin Reaves, who averaged 23.3 points during the regular season, went just 3-for-16 in Game 1. \u2022\u00a0Download the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[201549,85,46,105],"class_list":["post-429625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-3-things-to-watch-lakers-thunder-game-2","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}