{"id":634906,"date":"2026-05-10T14:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T14:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/634906\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T14:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T14:51:09","slug":"why-kendrick-perkins-believes-the-thunder-exposed-lakers-in-game-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/634906\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Kendrick Perkins believes the Thunder \u2018exposed\u2019 Lakers in Game 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why Kendrick Perkins believes the Thunder \u2018exposed\u2019 Lakers in Game 3<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> returned to Crypto.com Arena hoping to inject life into their Western Conference Semifinals matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>. Sadly, the Lakers walked straight into another brutal reality check<\/a>. Following Oklahoma City<\/a>\u2019s emphatic 131-108 Game 3 victory Saturday night, former NBA champion and current ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins<\/a> delivered a scorching assessment of the series. Perkins argued that the Thunder didn\u2019t merely dominate the Lakers. OKC exposed them.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLook, the Lakers just don\u2019t stand a chance. They don\u2019t match up to the champs,\u201d Perkins said during his postgame breakdown. \u201cThis series is over. You saw LeBron James<\/a>\u2019 body language. He can kill this, and he\u2019s trying not to stretch himself out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perkins specifically highlighted the Lakers\u2019 lack of athleticism and defensive versatility. He argued that Oklahoma City systematically targeted weak links within Los Angeles<\/a>\u2019 rotation. He pointed directly at Austin Reaves<\/a>. The latter struggled defensively throughout the contest. OKC repeatedly hunted him in pick-and-roll actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened was they got exposed, right? They got exposed from a personnel standpoint,\u201d Perkins added. \u201cIt showed that the Lakers are just not athletic enough to keep up with these top dogs in the league, especially Austin Reaves. He was picked on time and time again defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n

The numbers backed the criticism<\/a>. Reaves finished with 17 points and nine assists. Sadly, his minus-23 plus-minus reflected how heavily Oklahoma City exploited him, particularly through the relentless attacks of Ajay Mitchell<\/a>. He erupted for a career playoff-high 24 points.<\/p>\n

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The Lakers\u2019 2026 playoff journey has steadily transformed from gritty survival story into desperation. After battling past the Houston Rockets<\/a> in the opening round, Los Angeles entered the semifinals severely undermanned with Luka Doncic<\/a> missing a 14th straight game.<\/p>\n

Related: Skip Bayless blasts LeBron James\u2019 new \u2018scapegoat\u2019 for Lakers struggles in Game 3<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: 3 Lakers most to blame for 131-108 Game 3 loss to Thunder<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why Kendrick Perkins believes the Thunder \u2018exposed\u2019 Lakers in Game 3 appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[56233,11654,6250,5050,36975,3013,3031,1055,3014,355,12205,6402,99,4202],"class_list":["post-634906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ajay-mitchell","tag-austin-reaves","tag-cavs","tag-houston-rockets","tag-kendrick-perkins","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-sports","tag-warriors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634906","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=634906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}