OKC Thunder: 5 keys to beating the Lakers

OKC Thunder chalkboard note 4: Take advantage of few areas of weakness

It’s unusual for a defending champion to bolster their depth after a title. Typically support players take advantage of the increased spotlight to leave and sign bigger contracts. But, the Lakers are a different beast. The location is clearly a draw due to the weather and sponsorship opportunities.

But they essentially upgraded every positional player who left. The one exception may be the loss of both Danny Green and Rajon Rondo (though the latter won’t be noticeable until the playoffs).

Sure, LA added our Sixth Man, Dennis Schroder who fans are well aware puts his heart and soul on display nightly on both sides of the hardcourt. They also signed Wesley Matthews and are recognizing the developmental growth spurt by Talen Horton-Tucker. Matthews and Schoder are both on the smaller side and how much of THT’s success is tied to teams not having the book on him yet?

The point is if there is one weakness OKC can exploit it may be the Lakers’ backcourt. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and George Hill should win this battle. In fact, Shai averages (20.9 points) which is almost as much as the starting Lakers backcourt of Schroder (14.3) and KCP (10.1).