The Los Angeles Lakers acquired again on monitor 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 workforce 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 dealing with an uphill battle and, extra importantly, why they cannot 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 taking part in 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 it’s important to do is shield the ball versus these guys. They play bodily, handsy protection. In the event you permit them to get plenty of pick-sixes, it simply ignites their dwelling court docket, it ignites their workforce.”
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 are going to scout them. However they’re a extremely full-equipped workforce. It’s not simply Shai, clearly, we all know he’s the top honcho. However it trickles all the way down to everyone in that beginning lineup and to the bench. We’ve a full plate as soon as once more, however we’ll be prepared for the problem.”
The Thunder are maybe probably the most stacked workforce within the league, and so they additionally appear to get away with stuff different groups would in all probability be referred to 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 will be as much as Austin Reaves and James to do a lot of the heavy lifting.
That is not essentially an encouraging image for JJ Redick’s troops. Then once more, in addition they weren’t imagined to beat the Rockets with out their two main scorers, so that they actually deserve some credit score.
