The Los Angeles Lakers acquired again on observe and took down the Kevin Durant-less Houston Rockets to punch their tickets to the second spherical of the playoffs.
Forward of them, nonetheless, is not an encouraging image. They’re going to sq. off vs. the defending NBA champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Mark Daigneault’s crew has crushed them 5 occasions in a row, with all however a kind of losses being blowouts.
That is why LeBron James is aware of that they are going through an uphill battle and, extra importantly, why they can not permit to provide the Thunder free buckets by turning the ball over.
LeBron James preaches ball safety forward of matchup with “handsy” Thunder
“Clearly, we’re enjoying in opposition to the defending champions,” James said postgame. “So, my early scout, clearly, we’ll get into it in a few days, however clearly, it’s the defending champs. One factor you need to do is defend the ball versus these guys. They play bodily, handsy protection. In case you permit them to get lots of pick-sixes, it simply ignites their house courtroom, it ignites their crew.”
James then talked in regards to the Thunder’s depth, though he acknowledged that all of it begins by holding down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
“And clearly, we all know the top of the snake,” the four-time champion added. “A doable back-to-back MVP for Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander]. So, we’ll scout them. However they’re a extremely full-equipped crew. It’s not simply Shai, clearly, we all know he’s the top honcho. But it surely trickles all the way down to all people in that beginning lineup and to the bench. Now we have a full plate as soon as once more, however we’ll be prepared for the problem.”
The Thunder are maybe essentially the most stacked crew within the league, and so they additionally appear to get away with stuff different groups would in all probability be known as for a foul for.
The Lakers are more likely to be with out Luka Doncic for some — if not all — of the collection, so it’s going to be as much as Austin Reaves and James to do many of the heavy lifting.
That is not essentially an encouraging image for JJ Redick’s troops. Then once more, additionally they weren’t purported to beat the Rockets with out their two main scorers, so that they actually deserve some credit score.
