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The Oklahoma City Thunder have a 2-0 lead in their NBA playoff second-round series with the Los Angeles Lakers after a 125-107 win in Game 2.
Chet Holgren and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander each had 22 points for the Thunder, while Ajay Mitchell added 20. Austin Reaves led the Lakers with 31 points, while LeBron James finished with 23. Officiating was a major theme throughout the game, with both teams — especially the Lakers — upset at several calls.
Oklahoma City is undefeated in this year's playoffs after winning the title last year. Game 3 is set for Saturday in Los Angeles.
GO FURTHER
Thunder roll deep — and it shows as they go up 2-0 on Lakers: Takeaways
The Thunder already had a talent advantage, a depth advantage and the momentum from Game 1 on their side when they took the floor tonight.
Los Angeles spotting opportunistic Oklahoma City 21 turnovers secured its fate.
The Thunder built a 26-14 lead in points off turnovers and secured a 14-4 advantage in fast-break points. Austin Reeves scored 31 points but committed five turnovers, while fellow starters LeBron James and Marcus Smart each lost three.
The turnover differential was tight at halftime, with the Lakers committing eight to OKC's seven, but Los Angeles lost the second half turnover battle 13-7, and with it, its halftime lead.
During the Thunder's first-round series win against Phoenix, reserve Jared McCain took the court for 21 minutes and recorded 12 points and a single 3-point make.
In the Thunder's Game 2 win against Los Angeles, McCain blew those series numbers out of the water.
He didn't lead the team in scoring, but McCain was one of the Thunder's heroes off the bench. McCain made 4-of-5 3-point attempts and scored 18 points in 18 minutes, his highest point total since March 21.
Take a look at this: McCain is now shooting a ridiculous 80 percent from long range in this series. He has helped take the offensive burden off Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and figures to play a major role in Oklahoma City's attempts to close out the Lakers and advance.
This series was always going to be a battle over officiating: the lobbying, the acknowledgement of talent, the need to be physical, but be smart and everything that comes with it.
The tone was set for this game after two Austin Reaves attempts trying to draw fouls in the first quarter (a wayward 3-point shot, then a tumble out of bounds during a live-ball turnover). JJ Redick called a timeout, blew up Ben Taylor for a technical foul with the Lakers facing their first double-digit deficit and then watched his team close the quarter on a 7-0 run.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander spent much of the first three quarters in foul trouble. His third foul took place just as the Lakers erased Oklahoma City’s 11-point deficit in the second quarter, and with Gilgeous-Alexander sitting on only three field goals. The Lakers took a 58-57 lead into halftime.
The most critical sequence of the game happened in the third quarter, after Gilgeous-Alexander’s fourth foul came with a Flagrant Foul drawn by Reaves. Perhaps the emotional meter changed on that sequence, because Alex Caruso got a tech from the bench and Mark Daigneault blew a challenge and a timeout on Gilgeous-Alexander’s fourth foul. Gilgeous-Alexander got sent to the bench, Reaves made three free throws, and the Lakers led 66-61 with 10:34 left in the third quarter.
The fact that it was all downhill for the Lakers from there represents their biggest missed opportunity. The Thunder wound up mopping the floor with the Lakers, both without Gilgeous-Alexander on the bench and when Gilgeous-Alexander came back for the fourth quarter. Perhaps the Lakers will be more even-keeled when they return to Los Angeles, but they had their opportunity, and instead, Oklahoma City will take a 2-0 lead with the Thunder rolling.
For all the talk about Austin Reaves not being ready for the moment, the Lakers guard had the highest-scoring playoff game of his career. His 31 points provided the offensive punch the Lakers didn’t have in Game 1.
The defense, though, wasn’t nearly as effective. For the second-straight game, the Lakers’ plan for containing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander largely worked. The cost of that strategy, though, was open shooters and offensive rebounding opportunities, and the Thunder made them pay.
As the series shifts back to Los Angeles, the Lakers will need more performances like this from Reaves. In Game 2, he showed he’s capable of delivering one.
Game 2 of this series, while wrapped in part by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, was won by virtually everyone else. After the superstar picked up his fourth foul with 10:34 remaining in the third, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault had little choice but to sit him. SGA ended up doing so for the remainder of the quarter, mostly because the non-Shai minutes were just too good.
The Thunder followed with a 25-8 run, getting a little bit of everything from everyone. Ajay Mitchell did an SGA impression, ruthlessly attacking the rim and attempting six free throws in the quarter. Alex Caruso was as disruptive as ever. Jared McCain drilled a pair of 3s and swooned the crowd. What once was a back-and-forth of lead changes turned into OKC’s largest lead of the night.
And on this rare occasion, Gilgeous-Alexander played no part.
Austin Reaves when asked about his visible frustration with the officiating tonight:
💬 “I felt like I was respectful to all of (the officials) all night. There’s been a million times in the past where I’ve said way worse stuff. When we were doing the whole (jump ball in the second half), I wanted to get on the other side because they had a guy on the other side and I was just keeping the advantage. He turned around and just yelled in my face. I just thought it was disrespectful. The whole time that was going on over there, I don’t think he said much to them. …
“At the end of the day we're grown men and I just didn’t feel like he needed to yell in my face like that. I told him that. I wasn’t disrespectful. I told him that if I did that to him, I would have got a tech. I feel like the only reason I didn’t get a tech was because he knew he was in the wrong. I just felt disrespected.”
After registering a team-high 24 points in the Thunder's Game 1 victory, Chet Holmgren nearly replicated the feat with 22 points in Game 2, tied with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for the team lead.
Holmgren's follow-up performance was arguably more impactful. He led the team with a +19 plus/minus and tallied four steals and two blocks on the defensive end. He was more efficient offensively and added three 3-pointers.
Most importantly, Holmgren played his best basketball in the second half, as the Thunder pulled away in an eventual 18-point game. Can he channel this same level of play when the series heads west to Los Angeles?
Right after the final whistle blew, Lakers guard Austin Reaves and his teammates huddled around John Goble, engaging in an animated discussion. They stormed off the court shortly after, visibly frustrated, to close the road trip in Oklahoma City.
In total, Los Angeles was issued 26 fouls that resulted in 21 Thunder made free throws. Oklahoma City was issued 21 fouls that resulted in Los Angeles going 18 of 21 from the line.
The Thunder’s MVP candidate, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, received a flagrant foul for grabbing and twisting Reaves’ arm in the third quarter. Thunder guard Alex Caruso received an ensuing technical foul for coming off the bench onto the court in protest of the call.
While OKC received the more serious infractions, Lakers forward LeBron James still had animated dialogue with Goble during the game that was audible to reporters from The Athletic sitting courtside.
“What the f— are you talking about?” James could be heard saying, according to The Athletic's Joel Lorenzi. “You f—ing suck, man.”
LeBron James refused multiple attempts to speak about the officiating tonight in his postgame media comments, per The Athletic’s Sam Amick. When asked directly, he simply responded:
💬 “We’re down 2-0.”
The Athletic reader Amy P. highlighted how the Thunder's depth and bench play have placed more stress on the Lakers' stars.
JJ Redick postgame on his team's frustration with the officials:
💬 “I sarcastically said the other day that they were the most disruptive team without fouling. They have a few guys that foul on every possession. All good defenses do. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander gets a touch foul on a drive. There was a stretch where four straight possessions our guys got clobbered. They're hard enough to play. You got to be able to just call it if they foul and they do foul.”
He also addressed LeBron James attempting just five free throws in the series thus far:
💬 “Well he gets clobbered on that one with Jalen Williams trying to come over and block that shot … LeBron has the worst whistle of any star player I’ve ever seen. I’ve been with him two years now. There’s, again, the smaller guys, because they can be theatric, they typically draw more fouls than the bigger players that are built like LeBron. It’s hard for them, that he gets clobbered. He got clobbered again tonight a bunch. That’s not like a new thing. That’s not specific to this crew or this series. He gets fouled a lot. Doesn’t happen. Guy gets hit in the head more than any player i’ve seen on drives and rarely gets called so.”
Here is the rest of the series schedule with the Thunder up 2-0:
Mark Daigneault on officiating tonight:
💬 “I always keep my interactions with the officials between me and them. I had plenty to say to them, but I'm going to keep it there. I thought our team did a really good job of staying present and just focusing on the next controllable and we just played it possession by possession.”
The Athletic reader Robert J. sees the Lakers as having a slim margin for error against the Thunder so far.
“We just got blitzed,” JJ Redick said of the non-Shai Gilgeous-Alexander minutes in the second half.
Austin Reaves confronted John Goble after the game, and the discontent with the referees continued until the end.
A 5-of-20 start from long range was a major reason why the Thunder found themselves trailing at halftime. But in the second half, Oklahoma City resembled the offense that dispatched the Lakers with ease (and with 13 3-pointers) in Game 1.
The Thunder made most of their treys, connecting on 9-of-16 3-point attempts, as a lineup of mostly reserves broke the game open and helped lift the Thunder to a Game 2 victory.
Jared McCain was a brilliant 7-of-11 from the field and 4-of-5 from 3-point land, while backups Jaylin Williams and Cason Wallace added a couple of 3-pointers of their own. Big man Chet Holmgren, who tied with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for the Thunder's scoring lead, was 3-of-5 from long range.
Austin Reaves and the rest of the Lakers huddled around John Goble and other officials before departing the floor. Reaves was involved in an animated discussion before storming off the floor in frustration.
“LeBron has the worst whistle of any star player that I've ever see,” Lakers head coach JJ Redick said postgame.
