When the Thunder and Los Angeles Lakers faced off Thursday in Oklahoma City, the matchup had plenty of buzz.
The contest featured the top team in the Western Conference, a contender on a 13-1 run looking to knock off the defending champions, and two MVP candidates.
But the storylines will be much different when they face off again Tuesday in Los Angeles, especially for the Lakers.
Luka Doncic, who had scored 40 or more points in his past three consecutive games before Thursday, was stymied by Oklahoma City’s defense before sustaining a Grade 2 hamstring strain in the third quarter of the Lakers’ eventual 139-96 loss. He will be out through at least the end of the regular season.
Los Angeles’ Austin Reaves sustained an oblique injury against the Thunder as well, and he is also out until the postseason.
Those would be two huge blows for any team, but it really hurts the Lakers in particular. Entering the Thursday game, coach JJ Redick spoke of the importance of finding a rhythm within the rotation had been to his club’s recent success.
Now, the rotation has been altered significantly. On Sunday against the Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles started a group of five players who had never been on the floor together at the same time. The Lakers lost 134-128.
“Trying to find nine guys that can go out there and help us compete,” Redick said.
Over the past two games, Los Angeles (50-28) has been outscored 85-51 in the first quarter.
“We’ve got to be able to get stops,” Redick said. “That’s the biggest thing.”
The Lakers still have plenty to play for through the last week of the regular season. They come into the Tuesday game in a tight bunch with the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets, battling for the third through fifth spots in the West.
Los Angeles will have to try to hang on to its hold on the No. 3 seed against a Thunder team that has won five consecutive games and 17 of its past 18 contests. Oklahoma City is now within two wins, two San Antonio losses, or some combination thereof of clinching its third consecutive No. 1 seed in the Western Conference and the top overall record in the NBA.
Even worse for the Lakers: Oklahoma City has outscored its opponents 84-46 in the first quarter over the past two games, including a 146-111 rout of the visiting Jazz on Sunday. The Thunder shot 56.2% from the field in the wins over Los Angeles and Utah.
“It’s kind of a bell curve: You have great games, you have some bad ones, and then you have a bunch in the middle,” Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said. “And what dictates how good you are in the middle of the bell curve is your habits. And so, that’s what we tend to focus on.
“The shooting doesn’t always carry over night to night. That’s the most variant part of the game. We want to be a team that, on the nights we shoot it well, we’re really hard to beat because we’ve got a strong foundation, and that’s what we’re trying to continue to build.”
