Andrew Schlecht

And even though he scored a little bit, he was hurting them so much.

The turnovers, the non-existent defense was killer because the Thunder got whatever they wanted offensively.

They were picking them apart from the beginning.

And the fact that you could just pick on Austin Reeves whenever you wanted...

Partly because he's not a great defender and then partly because he's not a great defender and injured is a double whammy there.

I mean, for the Lakers, a much more important thing than seeding is getting to the playoffs healthy.

You know, one way or another, you're going to have to play a really good team.

You know, whether that be in round one or round two, like you're in the Western Conference and you are going to be competing with a team that's at a very, very high level, no matter where you end up in the standings.

But truly what matters most is like getting these guys healthy more than getting them the three seed.

And so like their focus has to be on getting these guys healthy.

We've seen Luca, you know, get to the finals.

with being the lower seed before.

They shouldn't be afraid of that.

What they should be afraid of is getting to the playoffs and having Luka at 60%, and then you're not winning a first-round series anyways.

Yeah, I think that like point of attack defense is just a problem for the Lakers on both sides of the basketball.

And when you have a guy like Shea, Jake Moravia has done a good job with what he's been asked to do with the skill level that he's at.

But he had nothing for Shea tonight.

And I'm not even sure that Marcus Smart would have anything for Shea either, you know, to be clear.

So I do think like that's going to be an issue for them.

The Thunder were able to get into the paint whenever they wanted.