Iztok: Lakers Game Observations: Game 52 vs Thunder

February 10, 2026 at 8:54 am

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

A good test against the champs, details and margins still missing

With the All-Star break probably already on most NBA players’ minds, the Lakers still had work to do before anyone could start thinking about Cabo.

Three games remain before the break, including measuring-stick tests against the two top teams in the conference. The first of those came against the reigning NBA champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder. Both teams were missing their top stars and two MVP candidates, with Luka Dončić sitting out his second consecutive game due to a hamstring injury.

The Lakers came up short, losing 119–110. Depending on how optimistic or pessimistic you are, this game can be viewed in two very different ways. On one hand, the Lakers showed enough fight and enough progress compared to past matchups against elite teams to make it a genuinely competitive night. On the other, LeBron James’ post-game assessment cut through it: the Lakers are not a championship-level team, and there is still a significant gap.

Lakers Nation
@LakersNation
LeBron James when asked to compare the Lakers to the Thunder:

“You want me to compare us to them? That’s a championship team right there. We’re not. We can’t sustain energy and effort for 48 minutes and they can. That’s why they won a championship.”
11:47 PM · Feb 9, 2026 · 7.7K Views
15 Replies · 6 Reposts · 97 Likes

James’ teammates won’t have to wait long for another chance to prove him wrong. That chance comes tonight against the second-best team in the conference, the San Antonio Spurs, on the second night of a back-to-back.

digginbasketball is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Today’s notes:

Good fight, but an opportunity missed

Lakers battled, OKC hustled harder

Hard to beat OKC when they outshoot you from three

A heavy dose of Marcus Smart

Another Austin Reaves test against a physical team (VIDEO)

1-Good fight, but an opportunity missed

While I agree with James’ assessment that sustaining a 48-minute effort has been a key problem this season, I side with JJ Redick’s post-game diagnosis for this one. The effort itself wasn’t the issue. The level was there, but the focus slipped during a few key stretches that ultimately decided the game.

Lakers Nation
@LakersNation
JJ Redick:

“When you play the best teams, you have to have a really high level of effort and a really high level of execution. You have to have both. I thought our effort was great, but [our execution] was not.”

He felt they needed to do a better job getting LeBron the ball in
9:54 PM · Feb 9, 2026 · 21.7K Views
38 Replies · 19 Reposts · 322 Likes

Failing to switch properly against the sharpshooter Isiah Joe led to open threes, followed by overcommitting and surrendering two open layups on cuts in the first half. Later, Jaxson Hayes and Deandre Ayton overhelped on drives, leaving Jaylin Williams wide open for three threes in the second.

Jovan Buha
@jovanbuha

JJ Redick said he felt the Lakers botched their defensive shell principles too frequently tonight, including over-helping a lot on drives. He noted that Jaylin Williams’ three 3s were all off over-help.

Offensively, he felt they went away from LeBron too much in the fourth.
9:56 PM · Feb 9, 2026 · 25.1K Views
33 Replies · 24 Reposts · 412 Likes

On the offensive end, the Lakers, who have had so much success in the clutch this season, failed to execute in the fourth quarter. Open threes were missed, and undisciplined decision-making pulled them away from the formula that worked in the third quarter, with James controlling the game from the block.

2-Lakers battled, OKC hustled harder

As expected, OKC brought the thunder early, playing its trademark grab-and-hold, swipe-heavy perimeter defense. The Lakers committed 10 first-half turnovers. Some were forced, but too many were unforced, and those, as JJ Redick noted post-game, stung the most in a game with very little margin for error.

However, the Lakers came out of halftime with a strong response, turning up the force and being more aggressive on perimeter switches while contesting most of the Thunder’s drives. They became the aggressors in the third quarter through forced turnovers on defense and James playing bully ball against smaller defenders on the other end.

The Lakers even managed to match the Thunder’s turnover rate, but the problem in this game was the second chances. In my 50-game check, I wrote that the Lakers have been a very good defensive rebounding team lately. In this game, however, they could not match OKC’s activity on the glass. Some of those second-chance opportunities came from the Lakers’ bigs helping on drives, while others were the result of missed boxouts or a failure to match OKC’s hustle on long rebounds and loose balls.

Source: Cleaning the Glass

The Thunder’s nearly 39 percent offensive rebound rate led to three extra field goal attempts and six additional free throw attempts, a decisive edge in an otherwise evenly matched game.

3-Hard to beat OKC when they outshoot you from three

Poor three-point shooting has been a persistent problem for the Lakers throughout the season. In this game, even Luke Kennard, who made one of his two three-point attempts while being tightly guarded on the perimeter, did not make a meaningful difference.

The Lakers shot 10 of 31 from three, just 32 percent, despite getting a solid 4-of-7 night from Marcus Smart. Jake LaRavia missed three open looks in the fourth quarter, while the two primary pull-up threats, James and Austin Reaves, combined to go 1 of 9.

Source: Cleaning the Glass

On the other end, the Thunder shot 14 of 33 from three, good for 42 percent. Given how strong they are on every margin, it is very hard, and often impossible, to beat them on nights when they also win the three-point shooting battle.

4-A heavy dose of Marcus Smart

Smart had one of his better scoring nights with 19 points, while still making his usual impact on the defensive end with timely plays.

The challenge with Smart is always finding the balance between his irrational confidence, the “no, no, yes!” plays that never scare him away from taking a big shot, and the moments when that same confidence turns into hero drives into traffic and, often, trouble.

Last night offered a bit of both. Smart knocked down two big threes in the fourth quarter, but he also called his own number too often and contributed to drifting away from the working plan of playing more systematically through LeBron James on the block, something JJ Redick pointed to as costly down the stretch.

Smart finished with 16 shot attempts, just one fewer than LeBron James’ 17 and two more than Austin Reaves, all in the same amount of playing time. Smart posted a 26 percent usage rate that jumped to 30 percent in the fourth quarter. All in all, it was a bit too much Smart at the end.

5-Another Austin Reaves test against a physical team (VIDEO)

Reaves has made another big leap this year, the kind that is usually the hardest one: the jump from a very good player to true All-NBA territory.

Source: NBA

However, because of some of his past struggles, fair or not, his performances against aggressive, athletic teams will remain under the magnifying glass, likely until he makes a statement in the playoffs.

Like the game itself, Reaves’ showing last night can be argued either for or against him. He had a great first half, scoring 12 points and handing out six assists, showing the downhill speed and rim pressure we saw recently against the 76ers. He consistently got to the paint, surprisingly so against the best perimeter defense in the NBA. Reaves made several strong reads, finding his big men three times on rolls or lobs and creating clean advantages, leaving the early impression that OKC missed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander more than the Lakers missed Dončić.

However, Reaves followed up that strong first half with a disappointing showing after the break, scoring just two points with one assist on 1-of-7 shooting. He finished the game with five turnovers against OKC’s high-pressure, point-of-attack defense. Reaves was stripped clean twice, but he was also clearly fouled on two other plays, which contributed to his frustration and a noticeable loss of rhythm.

Ryan Ward
@RyanWardLA

Austin Reaves on what frustrated him tonight vs. OKC: “I think I just got frustrated when I didn’t get the foul call, got the tech, let that kind of get to me a little bit. But yeah, it was just; I thought it was obvious. I told Eric [Dalen], he was the closest ref. If it was
11:38 PM · Feb 9, 2026 · 26.5K Views
4 Replies · 19 Reposts · 475 Likes

After the win against the Warriors, I mentioned that Reaves and Dončić are similar ballhandlers who attack defenses in different ways. Last night, Reaves’ speed was effective early, but OKC adjusted. As the game went on, James’ bully ball on the block against smaller Thunder guards proved to be the better alternative. That may be the key takeaway for the Lakers.

Against the best teams, identifying best pressure points and adapting more quickly and with greater precision, is essential, especially once Dončić, another strong post-up option, returns.

Comments

LakerTom says

February 10, 2026 at 8:54 am

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

A good test against the champs, details and margins still missing

With the All-Star break probably already on most NBA players’ minds, the Lakers still had work to do before anyone could start thinking about Cabo.

Three games remain before the break, including measuring-stick tests against the two top teams in the conference. The first of those came against the reigning NBA champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder. Both teams were missing their top stars and two MVP candidates, with Luka Dončić sitting out his second consecutive game due to a hamstring injury.

The Lakers came up short, losing 119–110. Depending on how optimistic or pessimistic you are, this game can be viewed in two very different ways. On one hand, the Lakers showed enough fight and enough progress compared to past matchups against elite teams to make it a genuinely competitive night. On the other, LeBron James’ post-game assessment cut through it: the Lakers are not a championship-level team, and there is still a significant gap.

Lakers Nation
@LakersNation
LeBron James when asked to compare the Lakers to the Thunder:

“You want me to compare us to them? That’s a championship team right there. We’re not. We can’t sustain energy and effort for 48 minutes and they can. That’s why they won a championship.”
11:47 PM · Feb 9, 2026 · 7.7K Views
15 Replies · 6 Reposts · 97 Likes

James’ teammates won’t have to wait long for another chance to prove him wrong. That chance comes tonight against the second-best team in the conference, the San Antonio Spurs, on the second night of a back-to-back.

digginbasketball is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Today’s notes:

Good fight, but an opportunity missed

Lakers battled, OKC hustled harder

Hard to beat OKC when they outshoot you from three

A heavy dose of Marcus Smart

Another Austin Reaves test against a physical team (VIDEO)

1-Good fight, but an opportunity missed

While I agree with James’ assessment that sustaining a 48-minute effort has been a key problem this season, I side with JJ Redick’s post-game diagnosis for this one. The effort itself wasn’t the issue. The level was there, but the focus slipped during a few key stretches that ultimately decided the game.

Lakers Nation
@LakersNation
JJ Redick:

“When you play the best teams, you have to have a really high level of effort and a really high level of execution. You have to have both. I thought our effort was great, but [our execution] was not.”

He felt they needed to do a better job getting LeBron the ball in
9:54 PM · Feb 9, 2026 · 21.7K Views
38 Replies · 19 Reposts · 322 Likes

Failing to switch properly against the sharpshooter Isiah Joe led to open threes, followed by overcommitting and surrendering two open layups on cuts in the first half. Later, Jaxson Hayes and Deandre Ayton overhelped on drives, leaving Jaylin Williams wide open for three threes in the second.

Jovan Buha
@jovanbuha

JJ Redick said he felt the Lakers botched their defensive shell principles too frequently tonight, including over-helping a lot on drives. He noted that Jaylin Williams’ three 3s were all off over-help.

Offensively, he felt they went away from LeBron too much in the fourth.
9:56 PM · Feb 9, 2026 · 25.1K Views
33 Replies · 24 Reposts · 412 Likes

On the offensive end, the Lakers, who have had so much success in the clutch this season, failed to execute in the fourth quarter. Open threes were missed, and undisciplined decision-making pulled them away from the formula that worked in the third quarter, with James controlling the game from the block.

2-Lakers battled, OKC hustled harder

As expected, OKC brought the thunder early, playing its trademark grab-and-hold, swipe-heavy perimeter defense. The Lakers committed 10 first-half turnovers. Some were forced, but too many were unforced, and those, as JJ Redick noted post-game, stung the most in a game with very little margin for error.

However, the Lakers came out of halftime with a strong response, turning up the force and being more aggressive on perimeter switches while contesting most of the Thunder’s drives. They became the aggressors in the third quarter through forced turnovers on defense and James playing bully ball against smaller defenders on the other end.

The Lakers even managed to match the Thunder’s turnover rate, but the problem in this game was the second chances. In my 50-game check, I wrote that the Lakers have been a very good defensive rebounding team lately. In this game, however, they could not match OKC’s activity on the glass. Some of those second-chance opportunities came from the Lakers’ bigs helping on drives, while others were the result of missed boxouts or a failure to match OKC’s hustle on long rebounds and loose balls.

Source: Cleaning the Glass

The Thunder’s nearly 39 percent offensive rebound rate led to three extra field goal attempts and six additional free throw attempts, a decisive edge in an otherwise evenly matched game.

3-Hard to beat OKC when they outshoot you from three

Poor three-point shooting has been a persistent problem for the Lakers throughout the season. In this game, even Luke Kennard, who made one of his two three-point attempts while being tightly guarded on the perimeter, did not make a meaningful difference.

The Lakers shot 10 of 31 from three, just 32 percent, despite getting a solid 4-of-7 night from Marcus Smart. Jake LaRavia missed three open looks in the fourth quarter, while the two primary pull-up threats, James and Austin Reaves, combined to go 1 of 9.

Source: Cleaning the Glass

On the other end, the Thunder shot 14 of 33 from three, good for 42 percent. Given how strong they are on every margin, it is very hard, and often impossible, to beat them on nights when they also win the three-point shooting battle.

4-A heavy dose of Marcus Smart

Smart had one of his better scoring nights with 19 points, while still making his usual impact on the defensive end with timely plays.

The challenge with Smart is always finding the balance between his irrational confidence, the “no, no, yes!” plays that never scare him away from taking a big shot, and the moments when that same confidence turns into hero drives into traffic and, often, trouble.

Last night offered a bit of both. Smart knocked down two big threes in the fourth quarter, but he also called his own number too often and contributed to drifting away from the working plan of playing more systematically through LeBron James on the block, something JJ Redick pointed to as costly down the stretch.

Smart finished with 16 shot attempts, just one fewer than LeBron James’ 17 and two more than Austin Reaves, all in the same amount of playing time. Smart posted a 26 percent usage rate that jumped to 30 percent in the fourth quarter. All in all, it was a bit too much Smart at the end.

5-Another Austin Reaves test against a physical team (VIDEO)

Reaves has made another big leap this year, the kind that is usually the hardest one: the jump from a very good player to true All-NBA territory.

Source: NBA

However, because of some of his past struggles, fair or not, his performances against aggressive, athletic teams will remain under the magnifying glass, likely until he makes a statement in the playoffs.

Like the game itself, Reaves’ showing last night can be argued either for or against him. He had a great first half, scoring 12 points and handing out six assists, showing the downhill speed and rim pressure we saw recently against the 76ers. He consistently got to the paint, surprisingly so against the best perimeter defense in the NBA. Reaves made several strong reads, finding his big men three times on rolls or lobs and creating clean advantages, leaving the early impression that OKC missed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander more than the Lakers missed Dončić.

However, Reaves followed up that strong first half with a disappointing showing after the break, scoring just two points with one assist on 1-of-7 shooting. He finished the game with five turnovers against OKC’s high-pressure, point-of-attack defense. Reaves was stripped clean twice, but he was also clearly fouled on two other plays, which contributed to his frustration and a noticeable loss of rhythm.

Ryan Ward
@RyanWardLA

Austin Reaves on what frustrated him tonight vs. OKC: “I think I just got frustrated when I didn’t get the foul call, got the tech, let that kind of get to me a little bit. But yeah, it was just; I thought it was obvious. I told Eric [Dalen], he was the closest ref. If it was
11:38 PM · Feb 9, 2026 · 26.5K Views
4 Replies · 19 Reposts · 475 Likes

After the win against the Warriors, I mentioned that Reaves and Dončić are similar ballhandlers who attack defenses in different ways. Last night, Reaves’ speed was effective early, but OKC adjusted. As the game went on, James’ bully ball on the block against smaller Thunder guards proved to be the better alternative. That may be the key takeaway for the Lakers.

Against the best teams, identifying best pressure points and adapting more quickly and with greater precision, is essential, especially once Dončić, another strong post-up option, returns.

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