OKLAHOMA CITY — The Lakers punched first, but the Thunder punched harder in their Game 1 victory on Tuesday to kick off the best-of-seven second-round playoff series.
Now, it’s on the Lakers to respond with a better counterpunch in Thursday’s Game 2 at Paycom Center to avoid falling behind by two games before the series shifts to LA for Game 3 on Saturday and Game 4 on Monday.
“Obviously, it’s playoffs at the end of the day, so, I mean, even though it’s not necessarily win or go home, it leads to win or going home,” Jaxson Hayes said. “So, I mean, we gotta just come in as the more desperate team and with more urgency and just locked in and just ready to go.”
Here are three adjustments the Lakers need to make for Game 2:
Attack OKC’s defense better
It goes without saying that the Thunder are deploying different defensive strategies with Luka Doncic not available for the Lakers.
The Lakers are seeing less hedging/aggressive pick-and-roll defenses from the Thunder, who used more drop coverages and switching in Game 1 compared to the regular-season games Doncic played in.
And they have to be better at attacking the Thunder’s strategies.
They struggled against the Thunder’s drop coverage for most of Game 1 — which has been a season-long Lakers’ weakness regardless of opponent.
And the things that worked — post-ups and inverted pick and rolls — weren’t used frequently enough as the game progressed.
The Lakers’ defense wasn’t perfect against the Thunder, but it was good enough to keep the game competitive and potentially win.
Better shotmaking will help.
But the process needs to be much better, too.
“Offensively, we’ve got to be a lot better,” coach JJ Redick said. “That obviously falls on me to make sure we’re organized. Some stuff falls on the guys. Like, we had too many possessions without getting our corners filled. That just requires you jogging across the floor. But, we certainly can be more intentional about what we’re trying to do and who we’re trying to involve. A lot of the stuff that we kind of identified prior to Game 1 was there for us. We just got to keep emphasizing those points.”
Alter Austin Reaves’ rotation
Austin Reaves was among the key Lakers players who struggled with their shotmaking in Game 1.
He shot 3-for-16 from the field, including missing all five of his 3-pointers, for just eight points to go with six assists, five rebounds and four turnovers.
It goes without saying that the Lakers need Reaves to be better to have a shot against the Thunder.
And he will be.
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“We need Austin to be Austin,” Redick said. “The reality is, ideally when you get to this time of year, your body is kind of in peak shape from a conditioning standpoint, from a fitness standpoint. When you’re out, it doesn’t matter what you do — echo bike, treadmill, running on the court, whatever — nothing can simulate playing in an NBA game, much less an NBA playoff game. So, there’s a little bit of a catch-up there for him, and then as a staff, we got to help … put him in positions to be successful.”
One way the Lakers could help Reaves, who’s just three games back from a monthlong absence because of his left oblique injury, is shortening his playing-time shifts to help preserve his legs instead of having him play the longer stints to start the first and third quarters and close the halves.
Reaves has shot 2-for-17 on 3-pointers since returning in the Game 5 loss to the Rockets on April 29.
He’s still getting his legs back after a long layoff.
“We’ve looked at that,” Redick said about shortening Reaves’ shifts. “We’re looking at ways to help him. Being undermanned, it’s hard to. We’re trying our best with the rotation.”
Defensive details
One of the defensive details the Lakers could clean up is being tighter with their rotations after double-teaming or sending help toward NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
And knowing who to close out hard against and who isn’t as much of a priority to leave open.
