The Los Angeles Lakers battled hard in Game 2 against the heavily favored Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night, even taking a small lead into halftime. However, the Thunder wore the underdogs down in the second half, eventually running away with a 125-107 win to take a 2-0 lead in the series.
The Lakers' lead got as big as five early in the third quarter as their role players knocked down shot after shot and LeBron James controlled the game. Then, as they have so many times, the Thunder ripped off a massive run to wrestle control back.
After the game, Lakers head coach JJ Redick pointed out that OKC turned the momentum in its favor during the second-half minutes where Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was on the bench, via Dan Woke of The Athletic.
“We got blitzed,” Redick said of that stint, per Woike.
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During that time, the likes of Alex Caruso forced turnover after turnover and Jared McCain knocked down multiple 3-pointers to help stretch the Oklahoma City lead. At the same time, Los Angeles cooled off from 3-point range, and Game 2 quickly got out of hand.
For the Lakers to compete in this series without Luka Doncic, they need essentially everyone in the rotation to be on their A-game. While they got strong performances from Austin Reaves (31 points on 10-of-16 shooting) and LeBron James (23 points on 9-of-18 shooting), lackluster games from the likes of Marcus Smart and Deandre Ayton came back to bite them.
On the other side, the Thunder ran away with another comfortable win despite another relatively quiet night from Gilgeous-Alexander. The projected MVP finished with just 22 points on 13 shots in this game, playing only 28 minutes to get there due to foul trouble. Around him, Chet Holmgren finished with 22 points and Ajay Mitchell added 20 in the win.
The Lakers will now head home for a must-win Game 3 in Los Angeles, with no Doncic return in sight. Game 3 will tip off on Saturday night in Hollywood at 8:30 p.m. EST.
The Los Angeles Lakers battled hard in Game 2 against the heavily favored Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night, even taking a small lead into halftime. However, the Thunder wore the underdogs down in the second half, eventually running away with a 125-107 win to take a 2-0 lead in the series.