The Lakers are now in major trouble.
The Los Angeles Lakers hung around for a half on Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena, but the Oklahoma City Thunder ran them off the floor after halftime in a 131-108 blowout in Game 3 of the Western Conference Semifinals.
The defending champions now lead the series 3-0, and they can finish the job in Game 4 on Monday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Los Angeles went into the break up 59-57, shooting 55 percent from three in the first two quarters, and the building was loud.
The Lakers moved the ball, got clean looks, and played like a team that thought it belonged on the same floor as the best roster in the league.
Austin Reaves came out aggressive, and LeBron James ran the offense well all night, finishing with 19 points, eight assists, and six rebounds.
The Second Half Collapse
Then the third quarter happened, and it all went sideways.
Oklahoma City outscored Los Angeles 33-20 in the period, flipping a two-point deficit into an 11-point lead heading into the fourth.
The Thunder got wherever they wanted inside the paint, putting up 54 points down low compared to 32 for the Lakers, while their defense created turnovers that snowballed into easy baskets on the other end.
Los Angeles coughed the ball up 17 times, leading to 30 Thunder points, and that gap was too much to overcome.
Ajay Mitchell has been something else in this series, going for a game-high 24 points and 10 assists while filling in as a starter with Jalen Williams out due to a hamstring injury.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 23 points and nine assists even with the Lakers throwing double teams at him all night, and Chet Holmgren had 18 points and nine rebounds.
The Thunder bench crushed the Lakers' reserves again too, with Jared McCain drilling threes in the fourth quarter to blow it wide open.
Why There Is No Hope Left
Reaves finished with 17 points and nine assists but faded after halftime, and nobody else on the roster gave Los Angeles a consistent second option.
With Luka Doncic still out because of a lingering hamstring injury, the Lakers do not have the scoring to stay with a 64-18 Thunder team that is now 7-0 in the playoffs, the first defending champion to start a postseason that way since the 2017 Cleveland Cavaliers.
The history here is ugly.
No team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in an NBA playoff series, and nothing about the way these three games have played out gives any reason to believe the Lakers will be the first.
Every loss has followed the same pattern, with decent first halves giving way to Oklahoma City burying them after the break through turnovers and dominant play inside.
Even with the frustrations about officiating that have bubbled up throughout the series, the Thunder are a better and deeper team, and Monday night feels like the end of the road for Los Angeles.