After limiting Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and benefiting from a vintage LeBron James performance, Los Angeles still collapsed. Now, JJ Redick must ignite Austin Reaves and find bench scoring.
Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals had a lot of things go the Los Angeles Lakers' way.
Reigning Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was held to a season low 18 points. The Oklahoma City Thunder superstar also had a season high 7 turnovers. Despite all the social media and talking head discourse that would make one think otherwise, he only had 3 free throws in his 35 minutes of game play. The Lakers shot 1 more free throw than the Thunder. OKC only held a three turnover advantage in the much discussed Thunder strength versus Lakers weakness that could send the series spiraling for LA. The ageless LeBron James scored a game high 27 points on 12 of 17 shooting including 3 of 6 from deep.
And Oklahoma City beat Los Angeles by 18 points.
It had to be a bit demoralizing for JJ Redick and every Lakers fan to see so many atypical results from the defending champs and still lose a game by more than the historically high betting line. To add literal injury to insult, LA lost Jarred Vanderbilt to a gruesome finger dislocation and Luke Kennard is questionable for Game 2 with a neck issue.
So what can the Lakers possibly do to try to make the rest of this series more competitive and try to win a game? There's not likely any fix to overcome the disparity in talent and depth between the two teams, but there are three areas LA can show improvement going forward.
1. Austin Reaves has to play better. The absence of Luka Doncic means that Reaves is the Lakers' second best scorer, playmaker, shot creator and overall player. For LA to have any shot at all, he has to play highly impactful basketball. Game 1 was not that. Reaves scored 8 points on 3-16 shooting including 0-5 from deep.
2. Positive shooting variance. Redick's squad shot 41% from the field and 33% from the 3 point line. The problem with this one is that it's not something the Lakers can really control. Sometimes shots will hit nothing but net, sometimes they bounce out. But facing a juggernaut squad, some fortuitous magnet ball runs may be LA's best hope.
3. More bench scoring. The Lakers reserves scored only 15 points on 4-12 shooting in Game 1. Meanwhile, Jared McCain scored 12 points on 4-7 shooting off the Thunder bench. Luke Kennard (if he plays), Jake LaRavia and Jaxson Hayes will have to contribute in the points column to try to keep up with OKC's offense.