Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron and AD clear out the OKC Thunder

The Los Angeles Lakers stay undefeated with their third straight blowout!

The Los Angeles Lakers could have had a letdown against the Oklahoma City Thunder after the demolition of the Houston Rockets last night. Instead, the focus stayed sharp and they used three huge runs in the first three quarters to blow out a Thunder team without Al Horford.

Lake Show Life stated in the post-game reports that the only thing that went wrong in the Los Angeles Lakers basketball assault on the Houston Rockets was Kentavious Caldwell-Pope missing a dunk.

Does this give you a visual of how this game went?

KCP didn’t miss a dunk and the Lakers did not miss a beat in a 128-99 drubbing of the Oklahoma City Thunder. At least the Lakers had an opponent that actually tried to compete without a superstar quitting during the game and bullying his way out of town afterward. Yes, James Harden, that means you.

•  Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron James beats down the Houston Rockets!
• Los Angeles Lakers: 3 takeaways from blowout win over Houston Rockets!

The Good:

The Los Angeles Lakers starts:

The Lakers have found something that is really cool to them. Jumping on teams and punching them in the mouth early. Now that the defense is a focus of improvement mandated by Anthony Davis, teams can’t get their footing at the start. The Lakers had two huge runs in the first half and led by as much as 24 points.

There was a 16-4 run capped off by this LeBron James dunk.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1349531083319119872

Then in the second quarter, the Lakers had a 16-0 run. Instead of going for the one knockout blow to teams, the philosophy now is putting together offensive flurries with a combination of stringing together strong defensive possessions. We now know what it did to Houston earlier today with the Harden drama, but it was more evident with an OKC team that really tried to compete.

LeBron James:

The King is continuing his high level of play folks. Luka Doncic with be the media narrative for MVP, but you are reading about the leader in the clubhouse now. The Lakers are starting to have a lot of fun defending his title and he is the reason. Instead of bullying his way to the rim, he worked on his 3 point shooting.

The chess match he is playing with the rest of the NBA is inspiring to watch. OKC was in no danger of winning this game, so this is the time to work on parts of your game now that practices are scarce. He finished with 26 points in 27 minutes.

Anthony Davis: 

This is why the Brooklyn Nets made the Harden trade and why other teams will be doing the same in March.

The man is not fair to the NBA because he is too skilled, too long and if he decided you are too small, this is what happens to NBA opponents. He had 12 points in the first quarter before the lights warmed up in the arena. He finished with 18 points and 7 rebounds.

More importantly, Davis is the gatekeeper if the defense is not up to snuff. He was seen talking to Dennis Schroder about a missed rotation. If the accountability is like this, the NBA  is in trouble, especially the bad teams that can’t score.

The Bad:

The Lake Show defensive lulls:

The Lakers let off the gas in the second quarter allowing a 14-2 run as their 24 point lead was cut in half. But then Frank Vogel had a chat during the break and the Lakers jumped out on a 21-4 run to start the third quarter. This segment of the early post-game is being rendered redundant. This is how good the Los Angeles Lakers are playing right now.

The Story:

The beat goes on in Lakers Nation:

The Los Angeles Lakers are focused on jumping on opponents early to start games and in the second half. Granted the score looked a lot worse than the two previous games against Houston, but the schemes were executed against a team that actually tried.

OKC actually showed some breakdowns in the Lakers’ interior defense that the coaching staff can actually point out in film sessions. The Houston two-game set was useless other than the two wins.

As the Lakers continue to work on the defensive rotations and not waste minutes in games by getting stale, they will get stronger and stronger. Also, give the Thunder credit for going out and playing hard even though they didn’t have Al Horford. The Lakers couldn’t use the game as a shootaround session as they did against the Houston Rockets.

Lake Show Life’s more in-depth breakdowns will come in Lake Show Life Lessons tomorrow. Keep it locked for the only Los Angeles Lakers post-game report with highlights and in-depth analysis.