The Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder 108-90 in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals, according to a May 6 statement from players and coaches. Austin Reaves struggled in his third game back from a Grade 2 left oblique strain, making only three of sixteen shots and committing four turnovers.
Reaves said after the game, “Obviously the easy thing is to make more shots. I got to my spots multiple times and just missed a couple easy shots. But for the most part, gotta limit the turnovers, they pressure the ball really well. Gotta give us an opportunity to get a shot on goal every possession.”
Since returning in Game 5 of the first-round series against Houston, Reaves has made only fourteen out of forty-six field goal attempts and two out of seventeen three-point attempts. When asked about regaining his form, Reaves said, “I mean, nobody cares about that. I gotta go out there and play better.” He added that moving forward means focusing on preparation: “Watch film, see what the game gives you and like I said, learn from that and move on. It’s not gonna do us any good thinking about that.”
Head coach JJ Redick addressed mistakes made by his team during Game 1: “I don’t think there was a turning point,” Redick said after the loss. “I think it was a general theme throughout the night of when we made game plan mistakes, they hurt us… You’re playing the World Champs, your margin for error in terms of mistakes is not that high… We gotta clean that up.”
Redick also noted some positives despite defeat: “But there was some good things. We won expected score, held Shai under 20, he ended up with seven turnovers. Guys played hard, we just gotta do a better job with execution… It comes down to just attention to detail on that and I know we’ll clean things up and be better.”
Looking ahead at Game 2 against Oklahoma City with Luka Doncic still sidelined due to injury for Los Angeles’ opponent Houston earlier in playoffs—the Lakers hope improved performance will help them compete more effectively.
