Los Angeles Lakers (50\u201328) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (62\u201316) | Game 78 of 82<\/p>\n
WHERE TO WATCH AND WHAT TIME<\/p>\n
Date: Tuesday, April 7<\/p>\n
Tip-off: 7:30 p.m. PT<\/p>\n
Location: American Airlines Center \u2014 Dallas, Texas<\/p>\n
TV: Spectrum SportsNet+, Spectrum SportsNet<\/p>\n
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Radio: ESPN LA 710 \/ 1330 KWKW<\/p>\n
GAME PREVIEW<\/p>\n
A week ago, this was arguably the most anticipated matchup of the season, a clash between MVP runners and the NBA\u2019s top two scorers, Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.<\/p>\n
But a lot can change in a week, or even days.<\/p>\n
Don\u010di\u0107 and backcourt partner Austin Reaves remain out indefinitely with injuries that ended their regular seasons.<\/p>\n
More worrisome news struck the Lakers’ injury report on Monday, with LeBron James added for left foot injury management.<\/p>\n
So the Lakers could likely be down their top 3 stars, plus Marcus Smart, against the Oklahoma City Thunder in their second matchup in three games against the defending champions.<\/p>\n
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The Thunder have had the Lakers’ number this season, averaging a 27-point margin of victory in three games this year. Oklahoma City will be without its second-best scorer, Jalen Williams, on Tuesday as he\u2019s dealing with a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n
The Lakers are coming off a disappointing six-point loss in Dallas on Sunday as rookie Cooper Flagg dropped 45 points.<\/p>\n
James was one rebound shy of a triple-double, finishing with 30 points, 15 assists and nine rebounds.<\/p>\n
WHERE THEY STAND<\/p>\n
After an overtime comeback win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday, the Nuggets (51-28) pushed the Lakers (50-28) to No. 4 in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n
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A win over the Thunder would push L.A. back to No. 3.<\/p>\n
QUICK OPPONENT RUNDOWN<\/p>\n
The Thunder (62\u201316) have continued to look and play like the best team in the NBA, with the best record and arguably the best player in MVP frontrunner Gilgeous-Alexander leading the way.<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City comes in on a five-game win streak with victories in 17 of its last 18 games. They are coming off a 35-point road win in Utah on Sunday, pouring in 24 3-pointers on 53% shooting while finishing 59% overall from the field.<\/p>\n
Gilgeous-Alexander is second in the NBA, behind Don\u010di\u0107, in scoring at 31.4 points a game.<\/p>\n
WHAT TO AVOID<\/p>\n
The Lakers can\u2019t afford their recent trend of slow and bad starts to games. Against the Mavs, the Lakers were outhustled by Dallas, which led to them losing the opening quarter 41-30.<\/p>\n
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In L.A.\u2019s loss to the Thunder last week, the Thunder got off to an immediate hot start, taking advantage of the Lakers’ early turnovers. They lost the opening quarter 44-21 in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n
It’s going to take a collective committee effort to beat Oklahoma City, and a slow start would make their already high mountain to climb even higher.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re talking a barefoot-level trek.<\/p>\n
NOTABLE OPPONENT RANKS AMONG THE NBA<\/p>\n
The Thunder’s current ranking:<\/p>\n
7th (117.6) in offensive rating<\/p>\n
1st (106) in defensive rating<\/p>\n
Other rankings:<\/p>\n
SEASON SERIES<\/p>\n
Game 1 \u2014 Thunder 121\u201392 win at OKC (Nov. 12)<\/p>\n
Game 2 \u2014 Thunder 119\u2013110 win at L.A. (Feb. 9)<\/p>\n
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Game 3 \u2014 Thunder 139-96 win at OKC (Feb. 12)<\/p>\n
INJURY REPORT<\/p>\n
Lakers:<\/p>\n
LeBron James (foot): Questionable<\/p>\n
Marcus Smart (ankle): Out<\/p>\n
Luka Don\u010di\u0107 (Grade 2 left hamstring strain): Out<\/p>\n
Austin Reaves (oblique): Out<\/p>\n
Thunder:<\/p>\n
Jalen Williams (hamstring): Out<\/p>\n
Thomas Sorber (right knee torn ACL): Out<\/p>\n
THREADS FOR THE GAME<\/p>\n
The Lakers will wear their home gold unis again, while the Thunder will wear their white Association Edition uniform jerseys.<\/p>\n
NEXT MATCHUP<\/p>\n
The Lakers will play their final back-to-back game of the season against the Warriors in Golden State on Thursday and then back home against the Phoenix Suns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Lakers (50\u201328) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (62\u201316) | Game 78 of 82 WHERE TO WATCH AND…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[39387,11654,671,761,7625,3013,3031,1055,3014,20467,31003,355,4140,12205,6402,6415,6406,6407,99,85998,4202],"class_list":{"0":"post-570293","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-american-airlines-center","9":"tag-austin-reaves","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-cooper-flagg","12":"tag-jalen-williams","13":"tag-lebron-james","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","16":"tag-luka-doncic","17":"tag-marcus-smart","18":"tag-mavs","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-nuggets","21":"tag-oklahoma-city","22":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","23":"tag-phoenix-suns","24":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","25":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","26":"tag-sports","27":"tag-thomas-sorber","28":"tag-warriors"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}