LOS ANGELES The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Thunder of Oklahoma City 116-104 on the night of Monday. D’Angelo Russell scored 26 points and made five 3-pointers, while Anthony Davis contributed 24 points and 12 rebounds. The Lakers won their tenth game in a row behind 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 8 assists from LeBron James. The Lakers, who defeated the Thunder, who were leading the Western Conference, for the third time in a row, won the season series with 16 points from Austin Reaves, who also made four 3-pointers. Russell remarked, “I think you can’t relax since they’ve been so well-coached.” “That’s why the squad has everything and of the resources necessary to succeed and perform well at this level. You must be prepared to play with those men. Beating them is no accident.
James was on the verge of a triple-double
In his first game back after recording his career’s 40,000th point in a defeat to Denver, but the Lakers’ commanding lead prevented him from playing the last six minutes. Since the Lakers made six 3-pointers in a row to increase their advantage to 25 points while Davis was out, he was able to sit out the whole fourth quarter. Russell added more flair to his three-pointers on three straight plays to cap up the Lakers’ thrilling comeback. “When I’m hot, my teammates find me,” Russell remarked. “It’s simpler if you can stretch out the surface of the floor in that manner. That is the effect of shooting. It’s enjoyable.
With 9:06 remaining, Russell passed to James before his third 3-pointer, but James quickly returned the ball to him for a shot that left Russell sprawled on his back due to unauthorized defensive contact. The shot put the Lakers up 103-79 and brought James a standing ovation. Russell remarked, “I didn’t know I made the shot.” “I kind of tossed it up there,” Fortuitous strike. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, meanwhile, ended on twenty points to pace the Oklahoma City Thunder, which dropped for just the second time over nine matches. This broke his record of eight straight 30-point performances. Chet Holmgren and Lu Dort each contributed 15 points.
Coach Mark Daigneault of the Thunder stated,
“Our offensive performance was strong at first, but overall we just lacked sharpness.” “We kept ourselves in the game defensively because we turned them over several times. But tonight, that’s definitely not our fastball. Simply put, I didn’t think our attacking wit was as sharp as it needed to be. It’s necessary to hit shots against a squad with that much size and physicality, but we didn’t do it frequently enough. Oklahoma City, playing on somewhat tired legs during the third stop of a four-game road trip that featured a tiring victory at Phoenix on Sunday, made a season-low 30.6% of its shots in the first half. Reaves declared, “They’re going off extremely well back-to-back.”
However, any time you defeat a squad of that level with confidence heading into the fourth, it speaks something about your offensive and defensive play. It feels fantastic to defeat a team like that that has been playing excellent basketball and it gives you some energy moving forward. In the first half, neither team was playing at their best. Despite committing 12 mistakes, the Thunder quickly built a 12-point lead before going into a 2-for-21 shooting slump that let the Lakers build a double-digit lead. Due to a damaged left knee, Oklahoma City big player Jaylin Williams missed his second consecutive game. In his first game back for the Thunder after joining them from Detroit, Mike Muscala scored five points in eleven minutes.
Towards the end, Harry Giles III made his Lakers debut.
Up Next
- Thunder: On Wed. in Portland.
- Lakers: On Wednesday, they host Sacramento.
Blog By:- ExpertSadar
