OKC Thunder deliver statement win vs. Lakers: Grades

The OKC Thunder delivered a statement victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. Grades offer the details.

Following their first loss in the bubble, the OKC Thunder delivered what could be stamped as a statement victory. It was their third ‘seeded’ game and an amazing bounce back from the loss to the Nuggets.

While it wasn’t perfect, given the circumstances and the associated benefit it was about as good as it gets.

Facing the second team in a row who have length to throw at OKC there were some concerns. The Thunder looked disjointed against the Nuggets so with two top-five superstars the fear was this game could get ugly.

And it did — Just not for the Thunder.

OKC Thunder vs. Los Angeles Lakers – Grades

OKC led from tip to buzzer and in doing so became the first team to do that to the Lakers this season. In fact, the Thunder accomplished several firsts versus the Lakers this season.

The Thunder held LA to a season-low in points (86) as well as their lowest 3-point percentage – –  13.5 percent on 5 of 37 from deep. Overall LeBron and company shot 35.2 percent from the field. On Saturday the Lakers shot fractionally better (35.4 percent) from the field.

While some wondered if Frank Vogel would rest LeBron James and Anthony Davis since they have cemented the top seed in the West, that was never on the table as the Lakers have issues to fix and need the repetition of play to fix them.

As for the individual player grades – – fair warning. Because this was a statement game and required the entire team to deliver the game plan other than a few “pluses” the grades recognize the players equally.