{"id":302519,"date":"2026-05-06T12:43:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/302519\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T12:43:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:43:20","slug":"lakers-fail-game-1-test-against-thunder-despite-slowing-down-sga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/302519\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers fail Game 1 test against Thunder despite slowing down SGA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

OKLAHOMA CITY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Congratulations, Lakers<\/a>!<\/p>\n

You held Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to fewer than 20 points for the first time since Game 3 of the Western Conference finals last May 24. You forced him into a season-high seven turnovers. And \u2014 get this, this part is really wild \u2014 you afforded the man who basically lives at the charity stripe only three free-throw attempts.<\/p>\n

You should be so proud.<\/p>\n

You should also know now for sure: It\u2019s not happening.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re not knocking off Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

You held SGA, the reigning league MVP, to 18 points and you lost Game 1 of this Western Conference semifinal series by 18 points, 108-90<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And now you know you\u2019re not mounting a monumental upset and dethroning the defending NBA champions.<\/p>\n

You can play a bit better in Games 2, 3 and 4, sure. Austin Reaves<\/a> could shoot better than three for 16. Marcus Smart<\/a> should shoot better than four for 15. Luke Kennard ought to shoot more than four times.<\/p>\n

But unless, by some miracle, Luka Doncic<\/a>\u2019s ailing hamstring is healed by Game 2 on Thursday, the Thunder are just much too much for these Lakers.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City gave them a rusty, tin-man version of SGA for a game and continued playing without his injured co-star Jalen Williams. And still, the Thunder were too talented, too deep, too well-coached.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also too aggressive, too confident, too experienced, too together, too clever.<\/p>\n

Oh, but I\u2019m going on too long, let the Smart take it from here \u2026<\/p>\n

\"Thunder <\/p>\n

Thunder guard Jared McCain, driving to the basket against Lakers forward Rui Hachimura, had 12 points off the bench in Game 1, making four of five three-point shots.<\/p>\n

(Kyle Phillips \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what, they\u2019re relentless in their pursuit,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re constantly on the move, they\u2019re constantly downhill, putting defenses on their heels. So when you got guys like that, that\u2019s constantly putting pressure, not only on you just offensively, but defensively, it is tough. And they come in waves, right? And when they get hot and get going, they can really get going. So they\u2019re tough in that aspect.<\/p>\n

\u201c[And they\u2019re] defending champs. They\u2019ve been here, they understand it. They grew up together, and they have a different type of chemistry that most teams probably don\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n

That includes even this get-along gang that is this season\u2019s Lakers.<\/p>\n

Winning this best-of-seven series against the Thunder was already an impossible dream. Game 1 illustrated that it\u2019s more like a foregone conclusion.<\/p>\n

If the NBA issued intentional walks, they\u2019d put Oklahoma City on base and save the Thunder fans\u2019 voices for later in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

If it was possible to simulate the rest of the series, video-game style, it would be worth considering.<\/p>\n

Not that there isn\u2019t still value in this series for the Lakers. Not so much in the inevitable result, but for the result of the test: Who on this team is built for this?<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Who on this roster measures up against the barometer that is Oklahoma City?<\/p>\n

Who will best slot in alongside Doncic, the heliocentric star who everyone knows thrives when paired with defenders, shooters and lob threats?<\/p>\n

Is Reaves \u2014 as delightful a character and player as he\u2019s been in regular-season action \u2014 really a reliable second option beside Doncic when the physicality ratchets up in the postseason? Is he durable enough to count on late in a season?<\/p>\n

Does anyone on the Lakers besides 41-year-old LeBron James<\/a> \u2014 who had a game-high 27 points on 12-for-17 shooting in Game 1 \u2014 have it in them to throw a few scoring punches?<\/p>\n

Final grades aren\u2019t in yet, but let\u2019s assume many of the current Lakers would want to hide the report card when it came \u2014 even though they tried, they really, really did.<\/p>\n

But against Oklahoma City, the Lakers\u2019 lulls became an invitation for the Thunder to strike. A few miscues got compounded exponentially.<\/p>\n

Sometimes you have little room for error. And then there\u2019s playing against the Thunder, when there is none: \u201cOnce you make a couple mental mistakes,\u201d Reaves said, \u201cit seems like they take advantage of every one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Thunder <\/p>\n

Thunder center Chet Holmgren beats Lakers forward Rui Hachimura to a loose ball during Game 1 on Tuesday night<\/p>\n

(Joshua Gateley \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

And they don\u2019t have to be perfect.<\/p>\n

SGA doesn\u2019t play to par? So what! They shoot only 12 free throws? Forget about it.<\/p>\n

Because Chet Holmgren still goes for 24 points and 12 rebounds. Ajay Mitchell adds 18 points. Jared McCain chips in with 12 off the bench. They shoot 13 for 30 from three-point range. They put the clamps on during the second half, when they held the Lakers to 37 points.<\/p>\n

They took care of business, the team that has all the answers \u2014 and for whom the Lakers have none.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Congratulations, Lakers! You held Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to fewer than 20 points for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[123150,9831,423,48,52,51,10356,1415,47,50,49,7551,127741,127742,6664,1417,278,127740,177,1523,31143],"class_list":["post-302519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-best-of-seven-series","tag-first-time","tag-game","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-laker","tag-lakers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-luka-doncic","tag-most-team","tag-nba-champion","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-point","tag-season","tag-sga","tag-shooter","tag-test","tag-thunder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}