The Los Angeles Lakers looked to bounce back from the loss to the Utah Jazz in their second game of their four-game road trip against Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
1st Quarter
The Lakers went with the same starting lineup on Sunday with D’Angelo Russell, Nick Young, Luol Deng, Julius Randle, and Timofey Mozgov getting things going for the purple and gold.
Westbrook got the Thunder on the board immediately by hitting Steven Adams on his way to the hoop on three straight possessions. Julius Randle did his part on the other end by scoring two buckets consecutively as well while adding one point from the free throw line.
Lakers and Thunder continued to trade buckets with Randle extremely aggressive early on. Randle scored eight of the team’s first 11 points already surpassing his point total (7) from the loss to the Utah Jazz.
D’Angelo also got involved early hitting two threes to go along with a couple of rebounds an assist and a steal. Thunder began chipping away at the Lakers’ lead cutting it to three and then tying the game with Westbrook hitting from deep.
Despite a solid start, the Lakers let the Thunder back in the game with Westbrook filling up the stat sheet with six points, five assists, and two rebounds. Oklahoma City Thunder increased their lead to six.
The Lakers trail the Thunder with the first quarter coming to an end, 30-24.
2nd Quarter
Rookie Brandon Ingram scored his first bucket on the night with a smooth jumper. The Lakers continued to go to Ingram but missed three of the four shots he took. Jordan Clarkson helped get the team back in the mix with a few buckets of his own to tie the game at 30.
The Thunder quickly went on a run after Clarkson tied the game. Oklahoma City got out to a seven-point lead without Westbrook on the floor.
Once Westbrook checked back into the game, the Thunder really started to turn it on with Oklahoma City getting out to a 15-point lead. Westbrook, in typical fashion, was getting his teammates involved (7 assists) as well as putting the points with eight.
Two threes from Nick Young and Randle dictating the pace gets the Lakers back in the game cutting the deficit to five. Randle continued his strong play leading all scorers with a game-high 14 points. Unfortunately, the Thunder got back in a groove with Westbrook leading the way to a 12-point lead.
The first half came to an end with the Thunder with a commanding lead, 58-46.
3rd Quarter
The Lakers struck first in the second half with Nick Young getting an easy bucket. After multiple missed opportunities for Los Angeles, the Thunder extended their lead to 13.
With the exception of Randle, the team seemed very out of sync to start the second half. A lot of missed opportunities and missed shots while the Thunder continue to cruise with leads of 10 or more.
D’Angelo hit his fourth three-pointer of the game but has struggled shooting throughout the game. Russell was 4-for-11 up to this point with all his points coming from beyond the arc.
As the Lakers struggled to put it together, Westbrook and Victor Oladipo were leading the way in the scoring department for the Thunder. Both players increased their point total to 18 apiece in the third quarter.
Westbrook, as per usual, reached his triple-double in the third quarter with 18 points, 13 assists, and 10 rebounds.
Lakers made a run late in the third quarter with Clarkson starting to get hot. Los Angeles cut the lead to seven with 1:30 left in the quarter.
The third quarter came to an end with the Lakers making a run cutting the lead to six points, 77-71.
4th Quarter
Enes Kanter starts the fourth quarter with a dunk. Oladipo does the same on a Lakers turnover. Lead back up to 10. Passing became a glaring problem for the Lakers in the final quarter. The had no flow offensively and often looked lost on the court.
The Lakers started to turn things around with the help of Young. The veteran drew the foul beyond the arc to head to the line for three. Young made all three and then hit a three immediately after when Russell got the steal. The lead was cut to four as a result.
Unfortunately, the momentum swung back to the Thunder with Oklahoma City scoring four quick points and extending the lead back to eight.
Westbrook continued to make it look easy as he increased his point total to 33 and dished out another assist for 15 on the night. Along with being a matchup nightmare for the Lakers, Westbrook helped get the Thunder to a 17-point lead.
Westbrook proved to be too much to handle for the Lakers as the team suffers their second loss of the season.
Final Score: 113-96, Thunder
