LOS ANGELES — JJ Redick and Mark Daigneault fielded similarly-themed questions during their respective pre-game media sessions on Monday night – and for good reason.
How close is the NBA’s MVP race?
Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the league’s reigning MVP, are entrenched in a two-dog race for the award as of early February. Doncic leads the league with 32.8 points per game, while Gilgeous-Alexander sits just behind him at 31.8. It’s that close; the Lakers’ Slovenian superstar also ranks second in the league in assists per game (8.6).
That being said, when the Lakers and Thunder faced off at Crypto.com Arena – the third game of an eight-game Lakers’ homestand that spans the All-Star break – neither of the star scorers were on the court. With Doncic sitting out a second consecutive game with what Redick called a “mild hamstring strain,” and Gilgeous-Alexander sidelined by an abdominal strain for his third straight contest, both sides needed team efforts to try to bridge the gap, and the balanced Thunder ultimately outlasted the Lakers, 119-110.
The Lakers (32-20) cleaned up their first-half turnover woes – OKC scored 20 points off of 10 Lakers turnovers before halftime – and only produced five in the second half, but the Thunder (41-3) won the fourth quarter to put an end to the Lakers’ three-game winning streak.
LeBron James scored 14 of his 22 points in the second half and finished with 10 assists and six rebounds for the Lakers (32-20), who found themselves in a Thunder-style physical game that featured 52 combined free throws. Marcus Smart shot 4 for 7 from 3-point range on his way to 19 points, and Austin Reaves scored 16 off the bench.
Coach JJ Redick put it bluntly before the game: When the Lakers last played the Thunder – losing 129-92 on Nov. 12 at OKC – the Lakers turned the ball over 20 times. It couldn’t happen again.
“Regardless of who’s in the lineup, for us, we’ve got to do a better job of limiting our unforced turnovers,” Redick said. “That’s been a problem all season.”
The Lakers started the second half in relatively dominant fashion – outscoring the Thunder 33-26 in the third quarter thanks to a six-point surge from forwards Jake LaRavia and James, the latter of whom assisted a trio of 3-pointers in the period. They turned the ball over just once and used a 22-3 run to open an 85-77 lead with 5:09 left in the period. The Thunder, who led by 14 in the first half, changed the momentum and took a 93-91 lead into the fourth after a late Alex Caruso 3-pointer.
The Lakers had their chances to stabilize a lead. Within the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, Redick successfully challenged a foul and an out-of-bounds call. On both following possessions the Lakers failed to score. In the fourth, LaRavia missed wide-open or slightly-contested 3-point shots on three consecutive possessions.
During a Lakers’ cold spell on offense, forward Jalen Williams sank a pair of jumpers and forward Jaylin Williams drained a 3-pointer during an 11-2 run to give the Thunder a 109-101 lead with 3:05 left.
Chet Holmgren had a key put-back dunk with 1:17 remaining for a five-point lead, but the Lakers’ Rui Hachimura answered with a layup through contact to make it a one-possession game again. Jalen Williams then posted up for a short step-back jumper from the center of the key to push the lead back to five with 51.9 seconds to go.
James then missed a 3-point attempt at the other end, ending the back-and-forth bid, and the Thunder closed out the win at the free-throw line.
Jalen Williams scored 15 of his 23 points in the second half of his return from a 10-game injury absence to pace the Thunder. Isaiah Joe scored 19 points while shooting 4 for 8 from 3-point range, and Caruso scored 17, both off the bench. Holmgren finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
_More to come on this story._