Game Recap: Thunder 125, Lakers 107<\/p>\n
The Thunder defeated the Lakers, 125-107 to take a 2-0 series lead.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Download the NBA App<\/a><\/p>\n The Los Angeles Lakers led the Oklahoma City Thunder at halftime and had a five-point lead\u00a0early\u00a0in the third quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n It looked like the Lakers\u00a0were playing well enough\u00a0to make\u00a0it anyone\u2019s game\u00a0in the fourth quarter. That didn\u2019t happen\u00a0because the Thunder did what they have done all season \u2013 control\u00a0the third quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Thunder owned the league\u2019s best third-quarter net rating during the regular season,\u00a0outscoring opponents by 10.9 points per 100 possessions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n By the time the third quarter ended, the Thunder were up 13 points \u2013 and on their way to a 125-107 victory<\/a> over the Lakers in Game 2 of their Western Conference semifinal\u00a0series<\/a> Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Already the NBA\u2019s leader in career playoff appearances,\u00a0Lakers star LeBron\u00a0James became the first player in league history to play in 300 playoff games. James, who took a couple of falls and favored his right hip area and right wrist, finished with 23 points, six assists and three steals.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Oklahoma City owns a 2-0 lead as the series moves to Los Angeles for the next two games. Game 3 is Saturday (8:30 ET, ABC<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n 1. Thunder guards excel<\/p>\n After scoring 18 points in Game 1, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who owns the NBA\u00a0record\u00a0with 140\u00a0consecutive regular-season games with at least 20 points,\u00a0navigated foul trouble\u00a0and\u00a0contributed\u00a0with 22 points.\u00a0The Lakers continue to send double teams at Gilgeous-Alexander and try to force him to pass.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Thunder have the depth and talent to withstand atypical games from Gilgeous-Alexander, the 2024-25 Kia MVP, 2025 Finals MVP and a finalist for regular-season MVP in 2025-26.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ajay Mitchell, who moved into the starting lineup with Jalen Williams (strained left hamstring) out, had\u00a020\u00a0points and\u00a0six\u00a0assists, and Jared McCain scored\u00a018\u00a0points in\u00a018\u00a0minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mitchell was the 38th\u00a0pick in the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft<\/a> and played in just 12 of Oklahoma City\u2019s\u00a023 playoff games as a rookie last season. He\u2019s now a vital part of the rotation.\u00a0<\/p>\n McCain, the No. 16 pick in the 2024 Draft, wasn\u2019t on Oklahoma City\u2019s roster at the start of the season. The Thunder acquired him from Philadelphia in a February trade deadline deal. After 12 points off the bench in Game 1, he scored a playoff-career high in Game 2, going 7-for-11 from the field and 4-for-5 on 3-pointers. His performance was part of the Thunder bench that outscored the Lakers\u2019 reserves 48-20.\u00a0<\/p>\n 2. Holmgren comes up big again<\/p>\n Thunder center-forward Chet Holmgren made his first two 3-point\u00a0shots\u00a0and\u00a0scored\u00a022 points on 11 shots. It wasn\u2019t\u00a0just\u00a0his scoring. He had nine rebounds, four steals, three assists and two blocks.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In the game-changing third quarter with Gilgeous-Alexander limited to two minutes because of foul trouble, Holmgren had eight points, two rebounds and two steals.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI thought he was unbelievable,\u201d said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault. \u201cHe\u2019s the ultimate winner anyways, but he was the ultimate winner tonight. He played almost the whole third quarter and was a huge part of that run.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHis offensive rebounding and defensive rebounding\u00a0\u2013\u00a0his nose was in the fight down there. He went and got the ball. He had timely ones for us offensively late. Showed off his skill with his shooting. There\u2019s nothing he can\u2019t do, and when the lights are on, he\u2019s at his best.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Teammate Isaiah Hartenstein had 10 points, nine rebounds, two steals and two blocks, and Hartenstein and Holmgren, who had 24 points and 12 rebounds in the series opener,\u00a0combined for seven of Oklahoma City\u2019s nine offensive rebounds, leading to a 17-6 advantage in second-chance points.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve killed us in both games \u2013 every time they\u2019ve gotten an offensive rebound, they\u2019ve scored,\u201d said Lakers coach JJ Redick.\u00a0<\/p>\n 3. Reaves finds scoring, Hachimura continues hot shooting<\/p>\n Lakers guard Austin Reaves bounced back from a rough shooting performance in Game 1. Playing in his fourth game since sustaining strained oblique muscles against Oklahoma City on April 2, Reaves scored a game-high 31 points on 10-for-16 shooting from the field and 3-for-6 on 3-pointers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe did a good job touching the paint and those touch\u00a0shots were there. Got some good looks from 3,\u201d Redick said. \u201cHe played a solid game.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Los Angeles forward Rui Hachimura scored 16 points and made 4-for-7 3-pointers and is shooting 57.1% on 3-pointers in the playoffs (24-for-42), including 7-for-13 against the Thunder.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n 4. Turnovers a problem for Lakers again<\/p>\n The Lakers shot 50% from the field and 37.9% on 3-pointers. But turnovers, combined with Oklahoma City\u2019s offensive rebounds, made it difficult for the Lakers to stay close and make it a tight game in the final minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Los Angeles committed 21 turnovers, leading to 26 Thunder points. That\u2019s Oklahoma City\u2019s style \u2013 pressuring ball-handlers and converting turnovers into points. During the regular season, the Thunder were No. 2 in opponent\u00a0turnovers per game\u00a0and No. 1 in points off turnovers per game.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou can start seeing some trends here,\u201d Redick said. \u201cWe probably need to go back to the two keys we had against Houston (in the first round) which is take care of the ball and box out.\u201d\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":"Game Recap: Thunder 125, Lakers 107 The Thunder defeated the Lakers, 125-107 to take a 2-0 series lead.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[272619,355,99],"class_list":["post-630469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-lakers-thunder-game-2","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630469","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=630469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}