On Super Bowl Sunday, the Los Angeles Lakers went into Oklahoma City and beat the Thunder 108-104 in a balanced team effort that featured six players scoring in double figures, with center Brook Lopez as the high man with 20 points to go along with his five rebounds and five assists.
Russell Westbrook put up 36 points, nine assists and five rebounds in the loss, though the former UCLA Bruin did also have seven turnovers on the day. Paul George finished with 27 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
Unlike the previous two meetings against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Lakers didn't allow themselves to get down early or fail to compete on this occasion. Those two previous meetings resulted in the Lakers losing by an aggregate of 61 points.
Instead, the Lakers came out of the blocks in a full sprint and led for the duration of the first quarter and the majority of the game. Even with Westbrook hitting seven of his first 10 shots for 16 points before the intermission, the Lakers led by two points thanks to starters Josh Hart and Julius Randle both tabbing 10 points and grabbing six rebounds before the break.
Quick Note: Lakers have won 6 of their last 8 games and 10 of their last 14, with 8 of those 14 played on the road. Lonzo Ball has missed the last 10 games, too...complain as much as you like, but Luke Walton is doing a heck of a job.— Shahan Ahmed (@shahanLA) February 4, 2018
Lakers coach Luke Walton kept Hart, who is a rookie out of Villanova, in the starting lineup for the second straight game and called on Brandon Ingram to again play point guard with Lonzo Ball still sidelined due to an MCL sprain. Earlier in the season, Walton inserted Hart into the starting lineup when Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was unable to travel with the team due to a legal reasons and also when Brandon Ingram missed time due to injury.
When given the opportunity, the rookie has not disappointed, and Sunday continued the 22-year-old's surprisingly strong play. On the back of a 15-point, 14-rebound performance in Brooklyn a couple nights earlier, Hart finished the day with 14 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and two steals in an impressive all-around game.
In the second half, the Lakers came out shooting well from three-point land. Lopez, who also had an impressive game in his return to Brooklyn a couple nights earlier, proceeded to hit three of his first six attempts from three-point land and finished with four long-range makes in nine attempts.
The Thunder, predictably, came back into the game. With roughly three minutes remaining in the third quarter, the Thunder took a slender lead after George got hot and scored eight points to spur a 10-2 run for the home team.
By the end of three quarters, though, the Lakers held a three-point lead despite Westbrook tabbing 30 points, eight assists and four rebounds with a quarter still remaining. One glaring reason the Lakers managed to hold the lead was that the visitors had made 10 of their first 25 three-point shots, which was an uncharacteristically high 40 percent from distance for the worst three-point shooting team in the NBA. The Lakers finished the game with 13 makes on 30 attempts, 43.3 percent.
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To start the fourth quarter, the Lakers' second unit played strong defense and managed to maintain and even momentarily grow the lead against the Thunder's second unit. The visitors continued to share the ball and split the offensive burden. Before hitting the midway point in the fourth quarter, Ingram became the sixth Laker to hit double figures in scoring, which meant all five starters had accomplished the feat.
With four minutes remaining, the Lakers held a six-point lead, as Walton relied on a lineup of Hart, Ingram, Lopez, Randle and Jordan Clarkson to finish the game. Clarkson was the only bench player to hit double figures in scoring on the day, as the Lakers' sixth man contributed 18 points on 4-7 shooting from beyond the arc.
The Lakers would grow their lead 10 points before the three-minute mark, and the Lakers looked set to earn one of their best road wins of the season. With 2:44 remaining in the game, the Lakers extended that lead to 12 points, but Oklahoma City refused to give up on the game. Showing their inexperience, the Lakers allowed the Thunder to cut that difference to only six points with 46 seconds showing on the game clock. With 26 seconds remaining, the Thunder got the ball back and were somehow in a two-possession game.
At that point, Paul George stepped up and hit a three-point to cut the difference to only three points. With 21.7 seconds remaining, the Lakers looked like they may snatch defeat from the jaws of victory when Clarkson dribbled the ball out of bounds. The initial call said it was Oklahoma City ball, but thanks to a video review, the Lakers got the ball back and managed to get fouled on the inbounds play.
After Randle split his foul shots, the Lakers held a four-point lead, and Westbrook's subsequent three-point attempt did not fall for the home team.
It may not have been simple, but the Lakers avoided a late game collapse and collected an impressive road victory to finish their five-game trip with three wins. Next, the Lakers return home to face the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night at Staples Center.
