While it doesn’t make the losses feel any more frustrating in the moment, there is something comforting in the long run knowing that the team you’re losing to is just a better team.
It was apparent before Saturday, but Game 3 made it abundantly clear that the Lakers are simply levels below the Thunder. LA has made mistakes at times, but OKC is relentless and punishes them every time.
Normal teams make mistakes. Normal teams do not take advantage of every one of them. The Thunder are an abnormality. We have rarely seen a team like this.
There’s a bit of bitterness that the Lakers won’t have Luka Dončić this series. But against many other teams, this effort would result in a competitive series. The scheme is there. The effort is there more often than not. It’s not been perfect and there are areas to improve, but it ultimately doesn’t matter because they’ve run into a buzzsaw.
The only question left is if they’re interested in taking a flight back to Oklahoma.
So, let’s dive into the loss. As always, grades are based on expectations for each player. A “B” grade represents the average performance for that player.
LeBron James
37 minutes, 19 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers, 1 foul, 7-19 FG, 2-6 3PT, 3-4 FT, -24
This wasn’t LeBron’s best effort. He’s looked more tired as the series has progressed. He hit a couple of threes in the first half that were big, but he was much quieter in the second half.
He’s still attacking the rim…and not getting calls. The Lakers need that. But can we just let this man have continuation on one jumper?
Grade: B
Rui Hachimura
39 minutes, 21 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 1 foul, 7-14 FG, 5-8 3PT, 2-2 FT, -24
The biggest winner of this series for the Lakers is Rui. He’s been a playoff riser before, but he’s been unbelievable in this series. Even after all the attention on it after Game 2, Rui came out and had his best game of the series.
Imagine where they would be without his shooting.
Grade: A+
Deandre Ayton
24 minutes, 10 points, 6 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block, 3 fouls, 5-9 FG, -8
This wasn’t a great Ayton game. That being said, it seems he became a bit of a lightning rod for blame for this loss. Oddly, that was led by the broadcast.
Blaming Ayton for the team not grabbing offensive rebounds felt out of order. He was battling Isaiah Hartenstein on most of those possessions and getting a hand on it. He isn’t solely responsible for rebounding.
Now, having said all that, he’s been outplayed by both OKC bigs and it’s made a steep hill even harder to climb.
Grade: C-
Austin Reaves
39 minutes, 17 points, 3 rebounds, 9 assists, 5 turnovers, 2 fouls, 5-13 FG, 1-5 3PT, 6-8 FT, -23
It was a slightly mixed bag from Reaves.
The positive was that his playmaking remained strong. He set a new playoff career high with nine assists. However, eight of those came in the first half, a sign of how much the Lakers tailed off in this one.
The big negative, though, was his overall shooting. He started the game missing a lot of shots. He found his way a bit later on, but it was too little, too late. The Lakers just need him to be better, flat out.
It’s not realistic to expect him to average 30 points and be an elite playmaker. But it is what the Lakers need right now.
And when he’s not doing that, his defensive shortcomings look really loud.
Grade: C+
Marcus Smart
32 minutes, 10 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 4 fouls, 3-7 FG, 1-2 3PT, 3-4 FT, -22
These have been back-to-back frustrating Smart games. He’s doing a lot of the little things on both ends of the floor. He’s making things difficult defensively. His hustle created a couple of baskets on the offensive end.
Those things are great when Luka is around. When he’s not, the Lakers need more and he’s unable to provide it.
At the same time, he’s still doing some nonsensical things. His football pass to LeBron in the first half was a terrible decision that somehow worked and ended in a Luke Kennard three. OKC was forcing him to create as well, and you’ll never believe how that went.
Grade: C+
Luke Kennard
29 minutes, 18 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 foul, 7-10 FG, 4-6 3PT, -8
Easily his best game since the start of the first round. The difference in Game 3 was that he was aggressive, both as a shooter and as a driver. The Lakers got multiple open looks off his drive and kicks.
There are still negatives with him — he plays small even as a small player, which gets him crushed on switches — but this was still a great showing.
Grade: A
Jaxson Hayes
9 minutes, 1 point, 2 rebounds, 2 fouls, 1-2 FT, -5
This wasn’t an outright bad game from Hayes, it was just a really unimpactful one.
Grade: C
Adou Thiero
13 minutes, 4 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 turnovers, 1 foul, 1-3 FG, 0-1 3PT, 2-3 FT, +0
Adou got Jake LaRavia’s spot in the rotation and was largely good. There were some chaotic moments, like blowing a wide open dunk and then getting bailed out by a foul call right after. But he grabbed eight boards, played decent defense and wasn’t awful. I’d suspect he gets time again in Game 4.
Grade: B+
Maxi Kleber
8 minutes, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 2 turnovers, 1 foul, 0-1 FG, -1
It was a bit of a surprise to see Kleber get minutes. It was even more surprising that he got them without another big on the floor. And those minutes went terribly. He turned the ball over, bobbled a pass out of bounds and set an illegal screen in consecutive possessions.
So, enough of that.
Grade: F
Dalton Knecht, Bronny James, Nick Smith Jr.
Only minutes in garbage time for this group.
JJ Redick
Redick is coaching one hell of a series. For a third straight game, they got Shai Gilgeous-Alexander out of rhythm as he finished 7-20 from the field. They’ve found some things that work offensively in spreading the Thunder out and finding shooters.
He changed up rotations today and found something that worked in Adou and something that didn’t in Kleber. But given where the team was in the game and series, you can’t blame him for trying something.
At the end of the day, it’s just obvious the team isn’t good enough.
Grade: A
Saturday’s DNPs: Jarred Vanderbilt, Jake LaRavia
Saturday’s inactives: Luka Dončić
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.