OKC Thunder 3 takeaways from blowout loss against Lakers
By Brandon Dale
The OKC Thunder continue to lack presence in the frontcourt
It is a daunting task having to watch a new brand of OKC Thunder basketball when fans have grown accustomed to brute enforcers in previous seasons. Kendrick Perkins, Steven Adams, and Enes Kanter all had one thing in common: they were enforcers in the paint.
The Los Angeles Lakers had a great night shooting the ball from beyond the arc, but the ability to find mismatches with Anthony Davis and LeBron James proved to be overwhelming for this young OKC core.
Darius Bazely did about as good a job as one could hope for guarding Davis, but the 56 points in the paint were too glaring as the Lakers were able to get to the free-throw line at will.
The defending champions went 17 of 22 from the line and almost seemed bored as OKC spent most of the night searching for the right combination to slow down the deepest team in the NBA.
Al Horford is the only member of the OKC frontcourt with great size. Without him in the lineup, OKC looked extremely small in the paint.