OKC Thunder can't find answer to stop Luka Doncic in blowout loss vs Los Angeles Lakers

Grudges travel.

Maybe even more so than defense, if Luka Doncic’s first game versus the OKC Thunder as a Los Angeles Laker was any indication.

Less than a year ago, Doncic was Dallas’ wonder boy, lugging through a second-round series in Oklahoma City en route to the NBA Finals. Now endowed with palm trees, two quality ball handlers on the wings and the future of the Laker franchise, Doncic returned to Oklahoma City aiming to wreak havoc even more fashionably than before.

Circus shots were a given on Sunday. You could count most of the sidesteps and stepbacks, too. Doncic finished the first half of OKC’s 126-99 loss with 22 points, the kind of efficient whooping so many of the league’s top scorers had failed to dish out in complete games at the Paycom Center, let alone a half.

He finished with 30 points on 11-of-20 shooting, making five of his 11 3-point attempts and collecting seven boards and five assists. New surroundings, same mastery. A 6-foot-7, dribbling, taunting Rubik’s Cube.

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“Same guy, really talented, smart basketball player,” star Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Pick you apart if you let him. It didn’t feel like a different guy. Felt like the same Luka Doncic.”

His Lakers — Lu Dort and friends might have a tough time swallowing the concept for a while — are more perimeter-oriented in their offensive attack, SGA noted, since acquiring Doncic. Their shooters are maximized. Los Angeles certainly looked unfazed shooting the ball in the first half.

The numbers would’ve been gaudy even for a quarter: 78 points on 63.6% shooting from the field and 68.2% from deep, tying a franchise record with 15 3s in the first 24 minutes.

“If you leave someone alone in the gym, they usually don’t shoot that well from 3,” coach Mark Daigneault said. “So there’s a shotmaking element. But I also think there’s a focus element that we were lacking in the game.”

For all the defenders OKC has that’ll be considered for All-Defense teams, it seemingly lacked the contests to match on Sunday. Doncic alone saw everyone.

Centers Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein tapped their feet on islands, with the Thunder often conceding switches. Dort did the bulk of the dirty work. Cason Wallace had the second shift. Alex Caruso and Gilgeous-Alexander each had turns. Doncic continued to drill head-shaking 3s, spinning most of OKC’s defenders around like he was dancing Bachata.

Daigneault figured the pace to beat a team of the Lakers’ caliber wasn’t up to par. Gilgeous-Alexander, for a second straight game, was emphasizing the difficulty of game flow when the Thunder spends so much of its time inbounding the ball after made shots.

LeBron James finished with 19 points and seven assists. Of his 16 attempts, approximately 32 seemed to manifest as turnaround jumpers in the post, with very few of them bothered. On the other wing, Austin Reaves poured in 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting.

The Luka-led Lakers didn’t just beat the Thunder on Sunday. They dissected OKC like a science-class frog.

“We didn’t do anything to deserve a win tonight,” SGA said.

Oklahoma City shot just 43.3% from the field, with Gilgeous-Alexander totaling 26 points and nine assists on 12-of-23 shooting.

Among OKC’s starters, Jalen Williams (16 points, 4-14) was the only player to attempt a free throw, connecting on seven of his eight attempts.

Veteran Alex Caruso noted that human nature — the loose grip that could potentially affect a team with OKC’s success, having locked up the West’s No. 1 seed weeks ago — might’ve played a factor in Houston’s convincing win Friday. That the holes that the Thunder often digs itself out of fly with teams that aren’t as talented as the Rockets.

“Not to make it an excuse, but whether we win or lose, our standing won’t change, so naturally, it’s going to slip in,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “The challenge for every team is different, and the challenge is for us to make sure that we stay focused and continue to play with that such urgency.”

Doncic’s Lakers aren’t the Rockets. And the once-29 point lead they held felt like a crater.

“How many games ahead are we?” Williams asked, turning to vice president of basketball communications and engagement Matt Tumbleson, who replied with 14. “That just doesn’t happen. So human nature is to, like, relax, and that’s something that we just fight as a team. I wouldn’t even say it’s what we’ve been thinking about going into these games. It’s just like, you play so many games that you’re gonna have games like that. We’ve been so good throughout the year (that) when we have games like that finally, it just obviously gets blown up because there’s so little amount of games that we have like that. We’ll be able to refocus and figure it out. We still have four or five games left.”

Four or five games to regain that ferocity. Or, in Williams’ eyes, to display what never left.

“I don’t think it’s lost,” Williams said. “I don’t know about ‘find it again.’ It’s not lost. Think it’s just more trying to figure out what we want to do and not panic.”

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