Chris Paul’s leadership aided Thunder to prevail 105–86 over the Lakers
Chris Paul was very talkative once again and led the Thunder to an exquisite victory 105–86 over the Los Angeles Lakers. Paul notched 21 points, seven rebounds and six assists and along with his close friend Shai Gilgeous Alexander, who had 13 points, seven rebounds and five assists, both displayed their playmaking ability along with their communication skills to push their team to an impressive win against one of the top title contenders.
Coach Billy Donovan was asked during a timeout: What is different about coaching Chris Paul from maybe a guy like Paul George or Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant: ‘’Well, I think they are all great in their own way, but with Chris coming in, one thing I think about is because of having quite a few veterans and having some young guys, he has really helped the young guys along the way. I give him a lot of credit for being at his age and at this point and time at his career of having the energy and enthusiasm to really help these guys and it really helped our team because our youngs become better as the season goes on,’’ Donovan responded.
Thunder didn’t have Dennis Schroder, who recently left the bubble to transport to the hospital where his wife gave birth to their second child and according to reports, everything went well. Terrence Ferguson was also out due to an injury (bruised right leg) and Mike Muscala was in a concussion protocol.
‘’We miss Dennis. He is obviously a big part of our team, but I think the other thing too — it gives some opportunities to the other guys and some guys stepped up and did a nice job,’’ Donovan said of Schroder’s absence.
Billy Donovan’s team has been doing a great job guarding in the perimeter and we saw that yesterday where they forced the Lakers to attempt a lot of three-pointers and they missed a ton (they shot only 13.5% from the perimeter — 5/37 3pt FG). They also drove to the basket many times and derived a lot of fouls from the high pressure (32/36 FT 88.9%).
Steven Adams and Lu Dort played a significant role in the team’s effort to halt Lakers’ game and both were very effective on the offensive end. Adams had 18 points, seven rebounds and two assists, while Dort finished the game with 14 points and four rebounds. Dort guarded James at moments and did a pretty good job against Lakers superstar.
Danilo Gallinari had 19 points (5/13 FG, 2/5 3s, 7/7 FT) and seven rebounds and Abdel Nader had seven points and two rebounds coming off the bench for OKC.
“We just tried to stick to the game plan,” Paul said. “We tried to keep those guys off the (free throw) line as much as possible. We tried to build a wall up on LeBron when he’s pushing it. Just trying to make it hard for them.”
For the Lakers, it was arguably their worst game after the restart of the season. Lebron James and Anthony Davis had no ammo combining for 33.3% which is the worst percentage they have gotten in all four games. How concerning is this? James had 19 points, six rebounds and two assists, shooting 7/19 from the field and 0/5 from the perimeter, while Davis had only nine points, eight rebounds and five assists, shooting 3/11 from the field and 0/3 from the perimeter. It was second-lowest point total in a Lakers uniform and his lowest-scoring performance while playing at least 29 minutes since January 2018.
“I think we’re fine,” Davis said. “I don’t think anything is eye-opening, something that we need to be afraid of. The offense is going to come around.”
It was the first time this season that Lakers never got the lead in the game.
“I think we had some great possessions,” James said. “I think sometimes we have some bad shot selection throughout the course of these games, but I think we got some great looks. Our defense is pretty good. We only allowed the Thunder to shoot 43% from the field. We’ll get our rhythm and start making some.”
Lakers will face up next is the Houston Rockets, which is another challenge for Vogel’s team. Thunder will play against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday.
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