La Lakers are aware of the third seed in the Western Conference and will be strengthened with a victory at OKC.
It was an overwhelming success with the new look that La Lakers won the Oklahoma City Thunder for the first time since the Luka Doncic trade.
JJ Redick’s team scored 126-99 in OKC, with Luka Doncic, Lebron James and Austin Reaves combining 69 points.
And despite a bit of reliance on the trio, one of the games’ stars was a player the Lakers traded before Luka Doncic’s deal landed on their lap.
During the season, Dorian Finney Smith was traded for the Lakers on a deal with Brooklynnet, which sent Dangelo Russell in the opposite direction.
Finney-Smith has become an important part of the Lakers team despite not being among the starters against OKC.
He played the starter minutes and finished in a total of 30 minutes.
Finney-Smith provided 14 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists, moving from 3 and 2-2 to 4-5 from free throws.
Most impressively, Finney-Smith had the highest “plus minus” of any player in the court, registering +28.
This was the seventh highest “plus minus” of individual Lakers players in individual games throughout the season.
The highest belonged to Luka Donsic, and on previous nights he had +37 against the Pelicans in New Orleans.
Lakers teammate Gabe Vincent went +21 and gave 12 points from the bench in 26 minutes.
With both Jared Vanderbilt (+4) and Jordan Goodwin (+12) working in minutes, the Lakers found an effective group of role players.
At any time, the Lakers can slot one or two of these players into the starting rotation.
The game still belongs to Luka Donsic, leading the team with 30 points, bounced back from a tough night against the warriors, during which he won against the Pelicans.