OKLAHOMA CITY — The Lakers were well aware of the challenge that stood in front of them with the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night.
The defending NBA champions, who had the league’s best defense last season, have expanded the gap between themselves and the rest of the NBA on that end of the court despite All-NBA/All-Defense wing Jalen Williams being sidelined to start the season and All-Defense forward Lu Dort missing six of the past seven games.
The Lakers knew they had to be decisive against a Thunder team that doesn’t concede many advantages. Wait too long, and those openings are no longer available. Wait even longer, and the Thunder, the league’s second-best team at forcing turnovers, would weaponize the Lakers’ indecision or stagnation with transition scoring.
And that’s even before mentioning Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning league MVP.
Even with knowing the challenges the Thunder present, the Lakers didn’t have answers for any of them, dropping Wednesday’s road game, 121-92, at Paycom Center.
The league-best Thunder (12-1) dominated the Lakers (8-4) from the outset.
The Lakers were led by Luka Doncic’s 19 points, seven rebounds and seven rebounds, but he shot 7 for 20 from the field (1 for 7 from 3-point range) and committed four of the team’s 20 turnovers.
The Thunder scored 26 points off of the Lakers’ giveaways.
Austin Reaves (13 points, five rebounds, three assists) also struggled with his ball security, recording five giveaways against Oklahoma City’s swarming ball pressure and physicality.
After the Lakers grabbed an early 7-2 lead following a 3-pointer from Rui Hachimura (13 points, five rebounds), the Thunder took control of the game and never let go.
Oklahoma City outscored the Lakers 28-11 in the final 9½ minutes of the opening quarter, taking a 30-18 lead into the second. The Lakers had nearly as many turnovers (six) as made shots (eight) in the first.
The Lakers missed their first nine shots in the opening 8-plus minutes of the second quarter, and also turned the ball over four times in that span, before Marcus Smart (nine points on 1-of-5 shooting) ended the shooting drought with a pull-up 3-pointer as the shot clock was expiring, which cut the Lakers’ deficit to 56-29.
The Lakers trailed 70-38 at halftime, the fourth-largest midgame deficit in franchise history according to Stathead.
And the Thunder didn’t ease up, leading by as many as 37 points in the third quarter (91-54) and by at least 25 for the entire second half.
Lakers coach JJ Redick took his main rotation players out at the 8:18 mark of the fourth, with his team trailing 108-73.
Dalton Knecht had 16 points off the bench, with all of his scoring coming in the second half when the game was essentially already decided.
Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 30 points on 10-of-18 shooting, picking apart the Lakers’ defense seemingly at will, to go with nine assists and five rebounds.
Six Thunder players scored in double figures, including Isaiah Joe (21 points off the bench) and Ajay Mitchell (14 points).
The Lakers, who are 1-2 so far on their five-game trip, will play the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday and the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday in a back-to-back set before heading home to Los Angeles.
More to come on this story.