The Athletic NBA Daily
Why the Lakers are a nightmare for the Thunder + MVPs in purgatory
Mon, 07 Apr 2025
Luka Doncic scored 30 points to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a 27-point blowout win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Dave DuFour and RealGM’s John Wilmes breakdown the Lakers win, discuss JJ Redick’s coaching, and the OKC’s nightmare scenario. Then, Dave and John discuss the MVP level performances from Nikola Jokić and Giannis Antetokounmpo and what it means if they fail in the playoffs.Host: Dave DuFourWith: John WilmesExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson Moody Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What happened in the Lakers vs. Thunder game?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily. Coming up, John Wilmes from Real GM is here. We're going to talk about the Lakers dominating the Thunder and a couple of MVPs in purgatory as we head to the playoffs. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, John. John Wilmes, my good buddy who writes over at Real GM, filling in for Zena and S, who are both off.
I mean, Zena is not even off, to be honest with you. I mean, she's working like women's national championship game, which she's probably recording like right now. John, thanks for joining me. We just got done watching the Los Angeles Lakers. handily beat the Oklahoma City Thunder thanks to an amazing shooting performance.
Chapter 2: What are the implications of the Thunder's playoff performance?
I mean, I'm pretty sure they just hit another three-pointer in postgame that they're going to count. What's your big takeaway? I think that this is game one. They've got another matchup Tuesday night, so it's a back-to-back for them. What's your big takeaway from round one of the new look Lakers versus the Thunder?
it's a tiny vision of of like the thunder's worst nightmare right where you've been kind of wondering all season long if their sort of playoff level intensity would cease to be an advantage once we get closer to and then into the playoffs right and obviously your mvp likely mvp uh shea gilgis alexander had a productive day yeah uh let me pull up the numbers on that but i i believe he was very productive from the field he had
Chapter 3: How did the Lakers match the Thunder's intensity?
He 12 for 23, but he didn't get to the free throw line at all. So and then nobody else on the on the team clicked offensively. They created an OK amount of turnovers to like they usually do. But the Lakers just sort of meeting and actually surpassing their intensity level is maybe something that you kind of worried about all season long with the Thunder.
Yeah, listen, the Thunder have a reputation for being extremely physical. And I thought that the Lakers, whatever their game plan was, was on point. Number one, they came out just as physical as the Thunder. I thought they kind of raised the level of what a foul call was going to be pretty early on, which is good. Because usually I think the Thunder does this to other teams.
And by matching that intensity, I think it really, they punched the Thunder in the mouth a little bit. And it helps that, look, they wound up going 22 of 40 from three. So we can throw the results out to a certain degree because that is an aberrational shooting performance. But there were big takeaways.
I thought on the defensive end in the half court, the way that the Lakers were both willing to switch a big Jackson Hayes out onto Shea Gildas Alexander. And then they were pre-rotating behind Jackson. the action to cut off the driving lanes. And part of that is that's what took away some of the free throws for Shea because there was just no one coming in with bad fouls.
I thought that the discipline that the Lakers showed, again, they seem like the veteran team that they are.
Yeah, the mouth... The mouth punchers got mouth punched, right? Yeah. We knew it was going to happen at some point, right? I'm not going to worry too much. They're still going to win probably 68 or 67 games. They're an incredible team. But it is a questionable time to have kind of your difficult moment, right? The playoffs are about to start.
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Chapter 4: Who needs to step up for the Thunder in the playoffs?
And the fear coming into the season with the Thunder was that they were going to be too shade dependent offensively still. That was their problem in the playoffs last year. They never really showed themselves not to be very Shea-dependent offensively.
Their defense has just been so overwhelming that having Shea score a lot and then killing teams with their defense has been enough to win that many games. But who's going to step up and be also a really good scorer against playoff defenses? We still don't really... see an answer to that question.
This was supposed to be Jalen Williams. His time to shine, he puts up 16 points in the game, 4 of 14 from the field. You just really didn't feel him, and it reminds me a little bit of last year in the playoffs, right? They went down the stretch of last season, and they do this down the stretch of games.
A little bit back and forth, where, hey, Shea, you're going until they turn that water off, and now, Jalen, you go while the defense is just keyed in on Shea not touching the ball. And again, That's what we saw. Only Jalen Williams wasn't able to raise the level of play. I mean, I just don't know. You know, again, this is a title contender. I think they're the favorites in the West.
I'm not going to take away too much from this one. But, you know, I'm going to put you on the spot to make a bold take off this game. And if I was going to do it, I would say... Jalen Williams has to step up if this team is going to not just win the finals, but make it to the finals. I mean, the playoffs in the West, it's so much closer than it maybe looks with the standings.
And I know like Oklahoma City has had just an incredible run. The playoffs just being a different beast. You need that second guy to be able to get a bucket.
Yeah, I actually thought that maybe Holmgren could have been that second guy at the very beginning of the season. He was just cooking offensively. But then, of course, he got hurt and was out for a couple of months, two, three months. Yeah.
And came back and, you know, he's been great, but he he didn't really pick up where he left off in terms of that chef stuff from the beginning of the season where it looked like he really had some extra juice going on. So that could be that could still happen. He still could become a more. you know, number two type score.
But with Williams, yeah, I mean, we just, we just still haven't seen it in big games. So I, I'm just waiting for it, I guess.
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Chapter 5: What is JJ Redick's impact on the Lakers?
Maybe never.
I mean, maybe never legitimately, maybe never. I mean, and with the fun thing for me, you know, when you see a guy like LeBron and you, you can see that he's actually having fun offensively. He looks re-energized in a, in a way as this facilitator, which is funny because we've been talking so much about his play finishing.
But I do think like him being able to get the hot, like to be the middle man, And to get the assist instead of be the hockey assist guy, I think is I don't know. He seems to have woken up quite a bit in that role. Bold takeaway for the Lakers for me is J.J. Redick has this team ready to play every single big game.
Every big game, they come out with a game plan that is it is very clear what they're trying to accomplish. And I think that nine times out of 10, like they're getting it done. I got to I got to tip the cap because I was one of the people that was I was skeptical guys come in. You know, he was a player and a good player, but he was coming off never coaching.
I think he coached like middle school basketball or something like that. And they put a really good staff together around him. And man, I mean, they've just been doing a great job.
He's got them doing homework, right? They have to do homework, right? They don't have anybody in the middle. And that is a weakness that they can often cover up. They do have big wings. They've got like four big wings, right? With Luka and LeBron and...
ruey and finney smith right and you can rebound pretty well with that um but ultimately you want something in the middle and uh there's only so much homework you can do to to cover over that but like they're gonna do every bit of homework that they have to do right yeah um i don't think there was enough homework for them to deal with steph curry just getting isolated on luca and going right to the rack
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Chapter 6: How do Luka Doncic and LeBron James complement each other?
And having no center to deal with on Friday night. I don't think there was enough homework you could do to to solve that problem. Yeah, definitely. Against a less experienced team like the Thunder, maybe they'll face the Rockets. Right. Even the Wolves are significantly less experienced than the Lakers. They could just homework their way through it.
Yeah. Guys, stick around after the break. John and I are going to go a little bit deep on Giannis and Jokic and the seasons that they're in and the purgatory that faces them this summer.
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In any other season, if the Nuggets or the Bucs were the one seed in their conference, Giannis or Jokic would be the frontrunners for MVP with the numbers that they're putting up this year. I mean, Jokic is now on a five-year run of having the best season ever played. for anyone five years in a row. I mean, he could have just won every single MVP award.
Obviously, this year, it feels like it's Shea's award to lose, and I actually agree with that. I like the idea of best player on the best team, and especially because you can't argue against Shea's numbers. It's not like he's putting up 23 a game or something like that. I mean, he's putting up legitimate MVP numbers. He is going to win the MVP, and I think rightfully.
And I think Shea is an identity maker.
I think that they follow his lead and they play in a very specific way.
And I think it is a narrative award, right? More so. Baseball, man, I always go back to the season that A-Rod won the MVP on a 50-win team. That is a bad idea if you're trying to tell the story of the season with the award. And I think that's what the MVP should do. So Shea is the story. The Oklahoma City Thunder are the story. Perfect award winner. But...
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Chapter 7: What challenges do the Lakers face against experienced teams?
Again, he didn't really play Watson very much against the Timberwolves last year when they badly needed his athleticism, right? You know who's been very good lately, finally, Jalen Pickett. Yeah, Pickett needs to play in the playoffs. And really, Russ just shouldn't close games is how I feel about it. There's just such a long track record of exploding in these high pressure moments.
And the ideal scenario with Westbrook and the Nuggets kind of has mostly happened, actually. He's really helped them through guys sitting out and helping them pick up their intensity level as a team that's been there, done that. And he has really helped them a lot all season long. But now that we're getting closer to the playoffs, you're starting to see the other side of the coin.
And yeah, Mike Malone does need to be prepared to maybe pull the plug.
Yeah. Let's swing it over to the Bucs because the Bucs, this situation is a little bit different. They made a big move to bring in Damian Lillard last year. Obviously, they wind up having to make a coaching change. Look, if you go to Doc Rivers, you've had some problems. And Doc has not been able to solve them. Now, we go into the playoffs.
We don't know yet if Damian Lillard is going to be available. My guess is probably not, just given the gravity of what he's dealing with. It does feel as if this situation is much more tenuous than what you have with Jokic and Denver. There has been talk for years around Giannis potentially leaving, and he has never given an inclination that he would want to do that.
But man, it just feels like now... Middleton's gone. It's a whole new coaching staff. You know, everyone's there. It's probably we're probably in the twilight for Brooke Lopez in Milwaukee. It just I would be very nervous if I was a Bucs fan heading into this playoffs, because if it's a first round out, I would I would be very worried. Giannis would would push that button.
Yeah, I mean, the smoke has been there forever, right? Recently, he actually opened a fitness brand store with his brothers called Antetokounbros. And the store, the flagship store, is across the street from the stadium. And this is the kind of thing that Bucs fans are like reading the tea leaves with, right? They're like, oh, he won't leave now because he just did that, right?
The fact that you have to even think that way and have had to for years, right, means that, you know, something really could happen. At the same time, we haven't seen healthy playoff Giannis in three years. It's crazy that that's true. It's not like he's some sort of perpetually injured player either. He's just gotten hurt at the wrong time. Three years in a row. Right.
And he's looking pretty incredible and pretty healthy right now. So despite everything that is going wrong with the Bucs and everything that they haven't really done right, he's a guy who could win a series on his own.
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