The Lakers were hoping to make an early-season statement Wednesday night against the defending-champion Thunder but instead they threw up their biggest stinker of the year, losing 121–92 on the road.
The loss drops the Lakers, who wrap up a four-game road trip Friday night in New Orleans, to 8–4. They started with a loss to the Hawks and then beat the Hornets before getting crushed by the Thunder. The 29-point drubbing in Oklahoma City was their largest loss of the young season.
Luka Dončić led the Lakers with just 19 points and later talked for the first time about the Mavericks firing general manager Nico Harrison just nine months after he shipped the star guard to Los Angeles.
Austin Reaves had the quote of the night, however, when he addressed the beatdown by the Thunder in a little bit of a profane way.
“They did what we wanted to do. Just to be blunt, they beat the s— out of us tonight,” said Reaves, who had only 13 points in 30 minutes of action. “There’s still a lot of basketball to play, we feel we can get to that level, but just tonight it wasn’t anywhere close. But I believe we can get there, we have our pieces to get there.”
Here's that postgame scrum:
Lakers coach JJ Redick seemed to share Reaves's feelings after the loss but he was a little more cleaned up with his take on the state of team.
“I don't think it's been a great road trip for us,” Redick said. “I don't think it's reflective of who the group is going be but it clearly is who the group is right now and so we've gotta course correct.”
When LeBron James could return to Lakers
The Lakers continue to be without LeBron James, who is still dealing with a sciatica issue on the lower side of his right body that has kept him out of action so far this season.
On Wednesday he practiced for the first time this season as he got in some work with the team's G-League affiliate, the South Bay Lakers, back in Los Angeles.
“He was able to participate in the practice,” Redick said to NBA.com. “Got up and down a little bit with just some, like, warm-up transition drills and progressed to 5-on-5 in the halfcourt, and got, I think about 12-to-15 possessions of live 5-on-5 contact.”
Their next matchup is Friday night in New Orleans against the struggling Pelicans, which could be just what they need to put that ugly loss to the Thunder behind them. James won't be available for that one but it looks like he could make his season debut fairly soon.
