Los Angeles Lakers blow another one against the Oklahoma City Thunder

The Los Angeles Lakers had this game circled in permanent ink after suffering a 26 point collapse to the Oklahoma City Thunder last week. The two teams had a return match in the Staples Center Thursday night without LeBron James in the lineup again after missing last week with an ankle injury.

Granted the Thunder coming into the game at 1-6 would not raise eyebrows to the Lake Show Life staff but thanks to this play at the end of the game last week by Darius Bazley and Russell Westbrook’s meltdown, it was enough to pay attention to see if there was any extracurricular activity at the end of this game.

The good news is that the Lakers did not blow a 26 point lead to lose this game. The bad news is the Lakers blew a 19 point lead to lose 107-104. The Lakers are 5-4 and should be sitting next to the Utah Jazz and Golden State Warriors in the top team in the Western Conference discussion.

Instead good luck trying to convince anyone of this team being in championship contention after losing to possibly the worst team in the NBA twice in a week.

This shot is telling…no one is afraid of the Los Angeles Lakers. Someone has to say it.

https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1456483485909065729

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

Anthony Davis was having target practice with the Oklahoma City Thunder!

Last week: 30 points (12-22 shooting!), 8 rebounds (4 offensive!), 2 assists and a steal

AD was shooting practice drills over the Thunder big men to start this game. He knocked down his first seven shots from the field in the first quarter alone. He scored 14 of the Lakers’ 25 first-quarter points while grabbing more rebounds than the entire previous game with nine and matching his assist and steals total.

In short, he was aggressive and engaged which helped the offense immensely.

His injury slowed him some but he finished with 29 points, 18 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks. All of these stats and the Lakers lose? Think he’s not getting those New Orleans Pelicans flashbacks yet?

Russell Westbrook played almost the entire game in control but his second-half disaster came late in the game.

Last week: Russ messed up and had a quadruple-double with 20 points (8-20 shooting!), 14 rebounds, 13 assists and 10 TURNOVERS!

Lake Show Life pinned this loss solely on the poor point guard play of Russell Westbrook. When he was in control looking for his teammates, the Lakers were on their way to the 26 point lead. In the second half, he shot ill-advised 3 pointers, turned the ball over and played poor defense.

In this game, he dialed things back a bit and took what the Thunder gave him and there was plenty.

Then came crunch time. Russ had a huge turnover on a fast break that could have tied the game. Then he left Lu Dort to chase Shai Gilgeous Alexander who was 20 feet away only to watch his man cut to the basket for a dunk. Then after watching Carmelo Anthony fill it up (More on that later!) twice from behind the arc, he decides to shoot the last shot. He finished with 27 points but he is connected to two bad Lakers losses.