OKLAHOMA CITY — The postseason road the Lakers want to take probably will roll through Oklahoma City at some point, the unquestioned best team in the Western Conference having played its way to the top with a level of all-around excellence rarely seen.
And the Lakers, heading into the final week of the regular season, have either the good fortune or the curse of having to test themselves against the team with the NBA’s best record.
At the worst, the games against the Thunder could expose the Lakers’ weaknesses. Oklahoma City is younger and hungrier with more size at the rim, capitalizing on advantages the Lakers will struggle to overcome.
But when the Lakers are at their best — and whoa, they were certainly at their best Sunday — they can prove to everyone, especially themselves, that their combination of otherworldly individual offensive talent and versatile, scrambling defense can hold down even the most talented of teams.
From early red-hot shooting to full-game focus, the Lakers stamped themselves as full-fledged contenders in the West by dominating the Thunder 126-99 in an all-caps, bold-lettered statement win.
Luka Doncic, who knocked the Thunder out of the postseason last season on the way to the NBA Finals, went deep into his bag of skills, spinning around defenders, firing passes over his head and stepping back and splashing over the Thunder’s league-best defense.
He scored 30 points and had six assists, but more importantly, he helped puncture Oklahoma City’s smothering perimeter defense.
Austin Reaves, who has cemented himself as one of the Lakers’ most important players alongside Doncic and LeBron James, opened another game scorching from three-point range while doing admirable work on MVP front-runner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Reaves scored 20 and Gilgeous-Alexander had 26 points, but rarely were any of his buckets easy.
And James, who has regained some of his defensive form coming off a groin injury, scored 19 points but more importantly helped organize the Lakers against the Thunder’s stellar supporting cast, including 7-foot-1 Chet Holmgren, who scored only 10 points.
The Lakers (48-30) answered the biggest questions in negating one of the Thunder’s biggest strengths. The Lakers fought for loose balls, they extended possessions on the offensive glass and they limited their mistakes.
And when the Thunder (64-14) pushed, and they did, Dorian Finney-Smith or Gabe Vincent helped extinguish the spark quickly.