{"id":1916007,"date":"2026-05-03T22:33:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T19:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1916007"},"modified":"2026-05-03T22:33:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T19:33:49","slug":"lakers-praise-thunder-before-playoff-series-one-of-the-greatest-teams-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1916007","title":{"rendered":"Lakers praise Thunder before playoff series: \u2018One of the greatest teams ever\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. \u2014 Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick said there\u2019s no point in being disillusioned about what the Lakers are about to have to do. To keep their season alive, they\u2019ll have to find a way to beat a team that, he said, isn\u2019t simply the best in the NBA this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw (a) stat in our morning meeting this morning, like teams that have had back-to-back, or even more than that, 10 or more better net ratings in consecutive seasons, you\u2019re talking about the \u201995-\u201996 Bulls and \u201996-\u201997 Bulls and the \u201916-\u201917 Warriors. You\u2019re literally talking about two of the greatest teams of all time,\u201d Redick said. \u201cI said to a bunch of people yesterday off site talking about this series, to me, the Thunder is one of the greatest teams ever in NBA history. It\u2019s just the reality. They\u2019re that good.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think our guys recognize that and respect that, and we know what kind of task we have in front of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s plenty of respect coming from the Lakers players and coaches for their second-round opponent. Austin Reaves credited Shai Gilgeous-Alexander\u2019s three-level scoring and his ability to get to the free throw line. Jake LaRavia mentioned the Thunder\u2019s incredible depth. Redick praised how disruptive the Thunder defense is in virtually every aspect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality of their defense is that whatever moments we felt Houston pressuring, like the maximum amount of pressure they put on us, that\u2019s OKC\u2019s baseline. That\u2019s their core,\u201d Redick said of the Thunder. \u201cYou\u2019re talking about a team that\u2019s, they\u2019re top five in every category that\u2019s disruptive-base: Steals, blocks, turnovers forced, all that stuff. And they don\u2019t foul. They somehow do all of that without fouling, which is one of the most remarkable things I think in NBA history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Thunder were called for 1,555 personal fouls this season, seventh-fewest in the NBA. The Lakers were called for 1,517, third least, but weren\u2019t close to consistently disturbing offenses like the Thunder did in the regular season and in their first-round sweep of the Phoenix Suns. It\u2019s an area, particularly on Gilgeous-Alexander, where the Lakers need to be excellent.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being the more physical team,\u201d LaRavia said. \u201cAgain, it kind of starts with Shai. We\u2019ve got to do a good job of making everything uncomfortable for him. He\u2019s a very talented player, can score in, you know, a multitude of ways. So, we just got to do a good job of being physical with him and trying to make him take enough, as many tough shots as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

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And if he lives on the line?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they call fouls, they\u2019re going to call fouls, but we\u2019ve got to go out there and be the more physical team,\u201d LaRavia said. \u201cSo, if that\u2019s how this series is going to be where they\u2019re just going to call a bunch of fouls, I think we\u2019re going to have to live with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Redick said the Lakers had everyone available at practice Sunday except for Luka Don\u010di\u0107. The team gave no update on his status.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey won it all last year, and you know they\u2019ve been the best team in basketball all this year. So it\u2019s obviously going to be a big challenge,\u201d Reaves said. \u201cYou know you can\u2019t go in scared. You have an opportunity to go play basketball. So we\u2019ll have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lakers are even heavier underdogs against the Thunder than they were against the Houston Rockets, an outcome that surprised most predictors.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could say nobody thought we were going to get past Houston, but everybody in this building believed,\u201d Reaves said. \u201cIt\u2019s the same mindset going into this. We obviously know the team that we\u2019re about to face and how good they are and the problems that they can create for 48 minutes. So we\u2019ll have to lock in every single day, film, whatever it could be, to continue to get better and pay attention to all the little details like they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
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\n Lakers-Thunder preview: Without Luka to start, can LeBron\u2019s banged-up group keep up?\n <\/div>\n
\n Both teams enter the second-round series missing key pieces: Jalen Wiliams for the Thunder and Luka Don\u010di\u0107 for the Lakers.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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For the Lakers, that starts with recognizing what they\u2019re facing without giving in to the size of the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re coming into any game, regular season or playoff\u2026\u00a0 you can respect the team, but you can\u2019t fear them,\u201d LaRavia said. \u201cYou can\u2019t come into the game fearing the opponent and then, you know, you\u2019re just gonna come in and get punked. So we respect how good this team is, but, our goal is to win, win the games and win the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo our mindset stays the same when it comes to that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. \u2014 Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick said there\u2019s no point in being disillusioned about what the Lakers are about to have to do. To keep their season alive, they\u2019ll have to find a way to beat a team that, he said, isn\u2019t simply the best in the NBA this year. \u201cWe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1916007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1916007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916007\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1916007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1916007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1916007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}