OKC Thunder Player Grades: No LeBron, no problem — for the Lakers!

The OKC Thunder got caught in a trap game allowing the LA Lakers to defeat them without LeBron James playing.

In truth, the headline is a little misleading because this game had ebbs and flows and was about the most uneven game of the season.

OKC jumped out to an early 17 point lead and looked like they were headed for an easy victory. Lakers head coach Luke Walton responded by removing his starters who had a lackadaisical start and inserted his bench and they delivered – big time.

By the half, the Lakers had captured the lead after a 40 point second quarter for a 67-64 edge. Moreover, the Lakers bench unit held a 30-7 scoring edge at this stage of the game.

Without LeBron, this Lakers squad is not a team who OKC should’ve had problems containing. Especially given the Lakers starters struggled mightily early in the match. But, they let their foot off the gas, gave LA hope and then it was a dog fight.

More concerning is this is the fourth loss in five games for the OKC Thunder and three of those losses are against sub .500 teams. In those four losses, the Thunder defense has disappeared allowing an average of 128.7 points. YIKES!

Despite entering the match with the 30th ranked perimeter efficiency the Thunder were hot all night from deep including the Brodie who as we know hasn’t been successful in his shooting efficiency on any area of the court this season but in particular from deep. Unfortunately, when those shots are falling the tendency is for players to keep jacking 3-balls and that’s what the Thunder did.

In essence, OKC played right into Luke Walton’s game plan and stopped driving the paint – an area the Thunder tend to dominate. Incredibly OKC is still clinging to the third seed, but clearly, it’s time to go back to the drawing board defensively with a slew of good teams in the queue and the hardest schedule remaining of all NBA teams.

Let’s take a look at the grades.