In a game in which Anthony Davis, LeBron James, and D’Angelo Russell all sat out with ailments, the Lakers closed out their road three-game road trip with a much needed and important win in Oklahoma City, beat the Thunder 123-117 on Wednesday night.
Saddled with more usage and responsibility with the team’s primary shot creators all out, Dennis Schröder led the way for the Lakers, exploding for 26 points — 22 in the 2nd half — to go along with six assists, two rebounds, and two steals.
Schröder started slowly, making only one of his first seven attempts from the field in the first half while suffering an ankle sprain late in the 1st quarter. Clearly dealing with pain, Schröder continued to be aggressive, but simply couldn’t get his shot to fall from inside or the mid-range, even though he was doing an excellent job of creating separation and generally running the team’s offense well.
In the 2nd half, however, Schröder came out with a new touch while continuing to find the creases in the Thunder’s defense. Darting in and around the paint, he was able to get to his spots on the floor for his mid-range jumper, leverage the space the defense gave him to take and make his threes, and use the defense’s aggression against them to earn trips to the foul line where he was able to knock down his free throws to pace his team’s offensive attack.
Beyond Dennis, five additional Lakers would score in double figures, led by dueling 19-point performances from Troy Brown Jr. and Austin Reaves.
Brown was electric from beyond the arc, bouncing back from his struggles in Memphis the night before to bury four of his seven attempts from deep and seven of his 10 attempts overall. Given more of an opportunity to create shots for himself, Brown flashed a nice ability to get into the paint to finish in traffic while still hitting his spot-up jumpers. Troy also contributed as a secondary shot creator, tallying four assists, while continuing to play his typical hard-nosed defense.
Reaves, meanwhile, was magical offensively, dishing out four assists of his own, and had a perfect shooting night spoiled with a late game missed free throw. Outside that lone shot, Austin canned all five of his shots from the field and made his other eight attempts from the charity stripe. Operating more on the ball with LeBron and Russell out, Austin deftly used screens and quick attacks in isolation to get to his spots where he could get off his jumper, draw contact to earn free throws, finish at the rim with his typical flair.
With so many players stepping up offensively and scoring in double figures, the Lakers don’t win this game without some key defensive possessions, particularly in the 2nd half where they were able to create the separation that proved to be the difference. Rui Hachimura was critical in this regard, tallying three blocks in his 16 second half minutes, including a couple of back-line swats that helped thwart Thunder attempts to chip away at the Lakers’ lead.
Truly, then, this was a total team effort in which every player who saw minutes contributed either through their boxscore statistics or through a steadiness and ability to meet the moment in front of them with focused and determined play. And on a night in which none of the team’s top offensive players were able to play, and to close out a road trip, that level of effort was exactly what was needed.
The Lakers will now return home and will be back in action on Friday vs. the Timberwolves.
