It was never going to be an easy task for the Los Angeles Lakers to face off against the dominant Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals and Game 1 of that series was a harsh reminder of the kind of firepower the Lakers will be dealing with.

Oklahoma City controlled the entirety of the game, outscoring the Lakers in all four quarters. Chet Holmgren had a monster game with team-leading 24 points and 12 rebounds for the Thunder while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Ajay Mitchell followed with 18 points each. 

The Thunder got the better of the Lakers in every major stat, from efficiency from the field and from three point range to assists and rebounds, even if the latter two stats were much closer than the final score would suggest.

Even with the loss though, it was one of the better showings from the Lakers against the Thunder, even without Luka Doncic on the floor. They kept up with Oklahoma City's physicality and stayed close when it came to turnovers and fouls, but the real discrepancy in their performances showed up in the scoring itself.

LeBron James had another strong performance with a game-leading 27 points on 12-17 shooting and Rui Hachimura had a strong performance with 18 points, but the Lakers' overall cast didn't provide the firepower necessary to keep up with the Thunder for all four quarters. 

The Lakers bench combined for just 15 total points and while Austin Reaves made his return to the starting lineup for the first time since suffering an oblique strain near the end of the regular season, he was mostly shut down, scoring just eight points while shooting 3-16 from the field.

The fact that the Lakers were able to come close to the Thunder in most of the non-scoring statistics is a good sign and they created the same amount of shot opportunities as the Thunder did with 85 attempts, the entire Lakers roster needs to be able to rise to the occasion and take advantage of those opportunities. 

The Thunder aren't going to give the Lakers an inch to work with throughout this series, which means that the Lakers will have to claw and fight for every chance to even the score. Equally important to that though, is the every person on the floor needs to be playing their best basketball. 

That wasn't the case for the Lakers on Tuesday night in Game 1, but they have at least three more games to make their adjustments and continue to match the Thunder's intensity.