Against a team as good as the Thunder, there is no margin for error. LeBron James discussed the attention to detail required for LA to have success against OKC before the series even began.

So, when LA played Game 1 and had 18 turnovers, that didn’t exactly put them in a position for success. The result went as expected: the Thunder beat the Lakers fairly easily.

After the loss, Lakers head coach JJ Redick mentioned how the process was good, but the execution was lacking.

“When we made gameplan mistakes, they hurt us,” Redick said. “I thought the Houston Game 5 was the most gameplan mistakes we made in a playoff game so far. We, obviously, lost that game. You’re playing the world champs. Your margin for error is not very high. You can make mistakes. Basketball is a game full of mistakes. There were just too many tonight. We got to clean that up.”

Despite the final score, the Lakers stayed within reach of the Thunder early on. It was an eight-point game at halftime, and midway through the third quarter they cut the lead to four. However, OKC requires 48 minutes of concentration. LA missed their next three shot attempts, Jaxson Hayes had a turnover and the Thunder went on a 6-0 run, bringing the lead back up to double figures.

“I just think we had some gameplan breakdowns,” LeBron said. “What we’ve been preparing, we had some breakdowns. They’re going to test you, obviously. They’re going to see how many times they can make you have gameplan breakdowns. We had a few, almost too many versus a team like this. We know what they’re capable of doing. They can go on a run where it’s like ‘We got them right here, it’s a two-possession game, three-possession game’ and then boom, it’s a double-digit lead. That’s what some of the great teams do. Can’t have compound mistakes.”

Minus LeBron, every other Laker has room for improvement. Jake LaRavia was struggling and gave the team nothing offensively. Austin Reaves had one of his worst games ever. He shot 3-16 from the field and had a team-high four turnovers.

Reaves is supposed to be the franchise guard, and that performance wasn’t even close to good enough.

“Just made a couple mental mistakes…If you watched [OKC] throughout the year, every time you make a couple mistakes in a row, they capitalize on those,” Reaves said.”

The good news is that this series is still very early. OKC did their job and won their home game. The Lakers want to steal one and that’s still on the table with Game 2 set for Thursday. For them to accomplish this, they’ll have to be better in every statistical category, and the last thing they need is self-inflicted errors.

“Those little mistakes are going to hurt,” Hachimura said. “We talked about it after the game. Those little stuff, they hurt us. This is the first game. Of course, we have more games but I think we have to communicate better on those mistakes. Especially after coming out of timeouts, those are going to be important positions for us so we have to lock in.”

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.

The Mavericks introduced Masai Ujiri as their new president of basketball operations on Tuesday. He answered questions for about 45 minutes, where he spoke about his background, his time off from basketball, and his hope of turning Cooper Flagg into a king. But it wasn’t Ujiri who inspired the most hope in me on Tuesday. It was team governor Patrick Dumont. The last question he was asked revolved around what he learned about the NBA that would make this job better for Masai and ultimately make the Mavericks a better franchise:

“I think it has to do with communication and collaboration within the organization,” Dumont said. “That having the right leadership is key, but having those leaders work together with a common goal is what sets franchises apart. That, to me, is the big difference.”

His answer here means something. It was just 20 seconds at the end of a long presser, but the emphasis he put on communication and collaboration indicates a level of self-awareness that is important. Not even 15 months ago, he oversaw a deal that exemplified a lack of communication of the highest order. That cannot happen again. He lost a lot of fans the minute Shams tweeted out the trade that sent Luka Doncic to Los Angeles, and for those of us who have stuck it out, the acknowledgement that Dumont is the one who gave the go-ahead remains in the back of our minds. Even with the poster boy, Nico Harrison, long gone.

And this lingering concern will be a worry going forward. Dumont will still be the man who signs off on every trade, signing, hiring, and firing. The Mavericks have an unprecedented opportunity for redemption with Cooper Flagg, but Dumont is still the guy who called the NBA Finals the “championship games”, in addition to calling in the disastrous trade. So while hearing him say he wants better communication throughout the organization doesn’t release all of my stress, it does give me a smidge of reassurance that maybe things will be different this time around.

Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun is continuing to catch strays during the offseason.

The Turkish All-Star just finished his fifth NBA season and the second in a row where the Rockets could not get out of the first round in the playoffs.

The Athletic conducted a league-wide survey asking players various questions about their peers. When asked who the most overrated player in the league is, Sengun received the most votes with 12.3 percent.

“He’s crying every play. He’s talented, but, dude, just play hard,” an anonymous player said.

Sengun, 23, average 20.4 points per game this season, which was a step up from the previous year, but it was not his career-high, which was set back in the 2023-24 campaign. However, he did make his second straight All-Star team.

Sengun’s season was up and down as he was trying to adapt to playing alongside Kevin Durant and find his way around all of that. All things considered, he did a decent jump weathering the storms throughout the year.

While he wasn’t perfect, he was the leader in many victories this season, including five where he scored 30 or more points.

Sengun still has a long way to go as a lot of his potential is untapped. Perhaps this diagnosis of being the league’s most overrated player will fuel him in his offseason preparations.

TDS community, what do you think of Sengun being named the most overrated player in the league? Let your thoughts be known in the comments section below.

Turns out the Sixers lost Game 1 because of the schedule, not because the Knicks crushed their souls into dust.

Let’s see if having a bit of rest helps the Philly Numbers, or if they keep crumbling.

Fresh Bulletin now, Game 2 later.

Mike Brown

On coaching under the Finals-or-bust pressure:

“People have talked about a mandate — like I’m coaching to win. It doesn’t matter what others say. I’m disappointed if we’re not in the Finals and having a chance to win it.”

On embracing expectations once he signed with New York:

“The opportunity for this job came open, and I was just intrigued by the players. I was intrigued by being in New York, calling Madison Square Garden my home court, being around the fans, hanging with [team president] Leon Rose who I’ve known for many years. He’s just a fantastic human being. And being around the players on that roster, and that’s all I looked at it as. The mandate and all that other stuff, like that’s what I expect, that’s what I want to do, and hopefully it can happen, but who knows.”

On the need for improvement after Game 1:

“We’re playing well at the right time, but I think we have room to grow. We can’t give up 34 free throws like we did last night. It’s gonna be tough if you give up 34 free throws. We had 15 turnovers last night. We can’t have 15 turnovers against this team because they thrive at the free-throw line, they thrive in the steal game, they convert those turnovers into points really quickly. And they didn’t shoot well. We know they’re gonna shoot better. We know that [Tyrese] Maxey is gonna be more aggressive, so we have to be even more alert than what we were in our last game.”

On guarding Maxey and Embiid without fouling:

“Maxey and Embiid are really, really good at drawing fouls. Maxey’s speed, he’s gonna drive and he’s gonna attack your chest. Most of them you can’t lead with your hands, you gotta lead with your chest. You hope that the referee sees that at times, we’re not initiating the contact, but we can’t put ourselves in the position to put the whistle on the referees’ hands of making a call or no call. So we gotta do a better job of leading with our chest and showing our hands. Shot fake, shot fake, and he can still shoot it whether its from two or three. We have to be disciplined and we have to stay down and figure out how to be the second jumper while having tests from behind and stuff like that. But we can’t send those guys to the free-throw line – and the rest of their team – 34 times and expect to get a win, especially if we only go 17.”

On Maxey’s point-of-attack challenge:

“The biggest thing when guarding Maxey at the point of attack is, he just moves so well and he can score from all three levels. His quickness, his athleticism for his size, is second to none. Because he can score from all three levels, so you have to give a multiple effort on every single possession. Because when he gives it up, you best bet that he’s gonna get it back at some point during that possession if not right away.”

On offering condolences to Nick Nurse:

“I’d like to pass my condolences along to Nick Nurse and his family, his brother’s family, and all their friends. Life is precious, and you don’t wish that upon anybody.”

Josh Hart

On the Game 1 blowout not meaning that much:

“I mean, it’s pretty easy because yesterday is irrelevant. Only thing that matters right now is the present. We got to make sure we’re focused, have good attention to detail, make sure we’re prepared for tomorrow. You know, that’s a good team. Obviously, they had an emotional Game 7, and I don’t know what their travel schedule is like and all that, but I’m sure they probably didn’t even go home. They probably went straight here. They had physical and exhausting series in travel. So, they’re gonna try to get their legs under them and come out with energy tomorrow. So we gotta make sure we don’t just match that, but exceed it.”

On being the favorites against the Sixers:

“Being the favorite means literally nothing. Every game you have to come in with a focus and attention to detail. And if you don’t do that, you can lose anybody in this league. We feel like we can beat anybody, but it’s that mentality that you have to go out there and be present every single day. Not worried about the past, because that’s irrelevant. Not worried about what the future holds, because you have no idea. It’s about us being in the present. So we don’t really care too much about being favorites or All Stars, All-NBA and all, because at the end of the day, none of that really matters. And none of that matters if you win. No one remembers the leading scorer or how many All Stars you had or how many NBA, All-NBA [honors you had]. They remember you being a champion, and that’s obviously the goal.”

On Brunson’s head size comments from Kelly Oubre:

“I feel like that was something that is very well documented. So I don’t think that was any shocker when he said that one.”

On Mikal Bridges and Miles McBride guarding Maxey:

“That was huge. Both of those guys obviously are blessed enough athletically to be able to keep up with him, use their physicality, use their length to their advantage. Maxey obviously is an offense unto himself, being able to break out and transition. You know, he’s tough, so they did an amazing job on him and have to continue it.”

Deuce McBride

On guarding Tyrese Maxey as a team:

“I feel like the whole team was just locked in, honestly. Mikal started off on him really well and then I came in, but there were times where other guys were matched up with him, and all of our antennas are up just guarding him as a team.”

On staying locked in during the series:

“Man, give God the glory. Can’t take it for granted being here. We’ve been here. We’ve lost. We’ve been up. We’ve been down. This is an experienced group, so we just can’t take it for granted. We’re locked in.”

On targeting Embiid in pick-and-roll:

“A lot of it is just reading and reacting.”

Jalen Brunson

On finding rhythm in Game 1:

“Most importantly, the ball was going in, and I got in a rhythm. My teammates did a good job with setting screens and getting me open.”

Nick Nurse

On the lack of rookie jitters from Edgecombe:

“Not very often. There’s been one or two brief moments. I think in the playoff game in Orlando, he took some wild shots. But it’s better than him turning them down.”

On the Game 1 defensive struggles:

“We have to wash that one away and get back and provide a bunch more energy and physicality. I just felt like we were a full step slower defensively. We just seemed like we were chasing everything, didn’t guard the ball well enough, didn’t contest shooters well enough. They were obviously picking us apart, just moving a lot better than we were. I think it was a pretty tough night for everybody. I didn’t think we shot it particularly well, but I don’t think we generated good enough shots. We’re gonna have to figure out how to run more offense to get some of the same looks we got in the past series. Obviously it’s a new series. We gotta figure it out.”

Kelly Oubre Jr.

On Brunson’s “big head”:

“I just know he has a big head. He’s got the braids. He’s a very smart, tactical player, so he uses all that to his advantage. Hey, I’ll be there. He can whip me [with his braids] all he wants, but he’s not getting free like that.”

On bouncing back from the Game 1 loss:

“We kind of started the Boston series off like this, right? But we made adjustments. We got better each and every game, so I expect the same from this series. Only up from here.”

On the Game 1 loss links to the quick turnaround after Game 7 in Boston:

“It was a quick turnaround. We had to travel, didn’t have a full practice before the game. In my time, I remember in the playoffs, you always had at least a practice before the game. If we were able to get some rest, get some recovery, and then get a good practice in…we would’ve been a little bit more prepared. But we don’t make the schedule. We just have to go out there and play.”

VJ Edgecombe

On his rookie season extending into the second round of the playoffs:

“Obviously, this is a dream. I didn’t imagine it to happen so fast like this.”

On adjusting to guarding Brunson:

“He’s a great player, so he’s going to make adjustments. Now, it’s time for me to make adjustments on how I guard him. Just play hard, fight through, just try to make sure I don’t get hit by any screens. Just try my best to stay in front of him and make him make difficult shots.”

On embracing the unpredictability in playoffs:

“You live for surprises. It’s hard to set high expectations and think you are going to fulfill all your expectations. I didn’t set crazy high expectations for myself. I just wanted to play basketball. I’m glad I’m in the position I’m in.”

Tyrese Maxey

On not overreacting to the Game 1 loss:

“If we lose by seven points, or 70 points, it doesn’t really matter. They won one game and we lost one game. We’re gonna make some adjustments and we’ll be ready for Game 2. Game 1 doesn’t carry over to Game 2.”

Paul George

On the emotional toll of the Celtics series and the need for adjustments vs. New York:

“We can’t use the fatigue as an excuse. But it has been an emotional roller coaster. You go from a Game 7, you get one day off and then you’re right back into another matchup. I think there was some carryover of us trying to get up and trying to get prepared for this next matchup. But we definitely should have come out and did a better job.”

On settling in after the Game 1 blowout loss:

“Just get settled in. Yeah, we had breakdowns but they also shot the (expletive) out of the ball. You know, they were hot. They came out hot, they came out on fire. But it’s a game of adjustments. We’ll make adjustments; see what we need to get better at. It’s the same as last series. It’s one. They don’t get any extra points for going up big [in Game 1]. We’ll be ready for Game 2.”

Aristotle “Telly” Hatzigeorgiou

On NYC restaurants banning Philly cheesesteaks:

“We just sat around, and all of a sudden we see the word ‘Philly’ there, and we’re like, ‘ugh!’ Teeth are grinding, and we didn’t want anything Philly that’s weak. We wanted strong NYC grit. Not a weak Philly cheesesteak.”