Chet Holmgren and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 22 points each, lifting the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 125-107 home win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday and a 2-0 advantage in a Western Conference second-round playoff series.
The Thunder remain undefeated in this year’s playoffs as the best-of-seven series moves to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Saturday.
Oklahoma City won despite Gilgeous-Alexander being hampered by foul trouble for much of the night, limiting him to 28 minutes.
“I’ve got the utmost confidence in our whole team,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said about playing without Gilgeous-Alexander. “We’ve shown that during the year. … We’ve tried to train that muscle and we’ve got guys that are competitors. They see the challenges of the game as opportunities and they attack them.”
Early in the third quarter, Gilgeous-Alexander was called for a flagrant-1 offensive foul while being guarded by Austin Reaves.
Gilgeous-Alexander headed to the bench with four fouls as the Lakers went up by five.
However, despite not having Gilgeous-Alexander on the floor, the Thunder went on a 25-7 run to move ahead by 13 late in the quarter.
“Guys stepped in and made confident plays up and down,” Daigneault said.
The surge included Jaylin Williams’ four-point play that put Oklahoma City up 85-74 with less than three minutes left in the third. Holmgren got the play started by ripping the ball away from Reaves underneath the basket on the other end.
The Thunder scored 11 points off Los Angeles’ seven third-quarter turnovers and ended the night with 26 total points off Lakers’ 21 giveaways.
The Lakers cut the deficit to five early in the fourth quarter, but Holmgren scored five consecutive points to extend the gap back to double figures.
About four minutes into the fourth quarter, Gilgeous-Alexander and the Lakers’ LeBron James went down on the same play after Gilgeous-Alexander was fouled by Reaves.
James, going for the block from the backside, tried to leap over Gilgeous-Alexander on the baseline but couldn’t avoid contact with the Thunder star.
Both remained down, with James grabbing his right wrist as he crashed to the floor while Gilgeous-Alexander writhed momentarily in pain.
Both Gilgeous-Alexander and James remained in the game.
Reaves, who shot 3 of 16 in Game 1, fared much better on Thursday, finishing with a game-high 31 points on 10-of-16 shooting.
“I thought he (Reaves) did a good job touching the paint,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “Those touch shots were there tonight, got some good looks from three. He played a solid game.”
James added 23 points for the Lakers, who shot 50% from the floor.
Oklahoma City’s Ajay Mitchell contributed 20 points. Holmgren hit 7 of 11 attempts from the field and had nine rebounds, four steals and two blocks.
Jared McCain added 18 points off the bench for the Thunder, whose reserves outscored the Lakers’ 48-20.
–Field Level Media
