The Los Angeles Lakers got back on track and took down the Kevin Durant-less Houston Rockets to punch their tickets to the second round of the playoffs.
Ahead of them, however, isn’t an encouraging picture. They’ll square off vs. the defending NBA champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Mark Daigneault’s team has beaten them five times in a row, with all but one of those losses being blowouts.
That’s why LeBron James knows that they’re facing an uphill battle and, more importantly, why they can’t allow to give the Thunder free buckets by turning the ball over.
LeBron James preaches ball security ahead of matchup with “handsy” Thunder
“Obviously, we’re playing against the defending champions,” James said postgame. “So, my early scout, obviously, we’ll get into it in a couple of days, but obviously, it’s the defending champs. One thing you have to do is protect the ball versus those guys. They play physical, handsy defense. If you allow them to get a lot of pick-sixes, it just ignites their home court, it ignites their team.”
James then talked about the Thunder’s depth, although he acknowledged that it all starts by holding down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
“And obviously, we know the head of the snake,” the four-time champion added. “A possible back-to-back MVP for Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander]. So, we will scout them. But they’re a really full-equipped team. It’s not just Shai, obviously, we know he’s the head honcho. But it trickles down to everybody in that starting lineup and to the bench. We have a full plate once again, but we’ll be ready for the challenge.”
The Thunder are perhaps the most stacked team in the league, and they also seem to get away with stuff other teams would probably be called for a foul for.
The Lakers are likely to be without Luka Doncic for some — if not all — of the series, so it’ll be up to Austin Reaves and James to do most of the heavy lifting.
That’s not necessarily an encouraging picture for JJ Redick’s troops. Then again, they also weren’t supposed to beat the Rockets without their two leading scorers, so they certainly deserve some credit.