The Los Angeles Lakers showed how great their defense is in their season-determining performance against the OKC Thunder.
The Los Angeles Lakers have undoubtedly got their most important victory of the season. They faced the best team in the NBA, the OKC Thunder, and the Lakers scored 126-99.
Lakers fans were excited to see the team perform at such a high level. And the fact that they kept this victory away from home against the stacked team showed their spiritual strength.
Austin Reeves went on to have a historic shooting season with 20 points, going 4-8 from the deep. However, there was one Lakers player who stole the show and finished the night with the game’s best +28.
The Lakers were elite at both ends of the courthouse. But their defenses really shine. Because they’ve done what only the other two teams did this season.
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It was a defensive statement from the Lakers, and they managed to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder quite a bit.
In fact, they became the third team this season to keep the Thunder below 100 points. The only other teams that would do that were the Suns on November 15th and the Mavericks on January 17th.
Despite being in court for just one of these games, Luka Doncic is one of the few players in the NBA and says he helped keep the Thunder below 100 points twice this season.
The Lakers did a great job defensively, especially with Shy Gilgas Alexander.
After the match, Austin praised Dorian Finney Smith, Jarred Vanderbilt and Jord Goodwin as excellent defensive players.
He believes that all three stars were locked up in the goal tonight, and they performed their plans perfectly with hard, intelligent plays.
“You see this guy here (Finney Smith)? He’s a great defender. We’ve got a lot of those guys. Vand comes in, Goody comes in.”
“Everyone was locked up in one goal. We’re supposed to do what we need to do and follow the game plan. The coach put together a great game plan and put it into practice.
The Lakers feel they have a strong confidence towards the final stretch of the season as they reminded everyone that the Thunder could be the best team in the NBA, but the playoffs could be another story.