Austin Reaves did not avoid accountability after the Los Angeles Lakers fell 119-110 to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night at Crypto.com Arena, pointing to his own execution and emotional control as key factors in the fourth-quarter swing.
“They made more plays than us,” Reaves said after the loss that dropped the Lakers to 32-20. “I played pretty bad in the second half. I got to be better and yeah, that’s really it.”
The guard finished with 16 points and seven assists in 29 minutes but struggled to maintain rhythm late as Oklahoma City’s pressure defense forced difficult possessions and limited clean perimeter looks.
Reaves explained that a technical foul shifted his focus during the second half. “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… I just didn’t know how all three of them could miss that, so I was just a little frustrated after that and couldn’t, you know, get back in the flow.”
Despite his comments on physicality and officiating, he stressed that the outcome was not decided by referees. “There’s nothing on the refs, that’s not why we lost… like I said, I was pretty, you know, bad in that second half. I got to be better for us.”
Oklahoma City’s defensive identity, built around physical perimeter play from Alex Caruso, Cason Wallace and Luguentz Dort, forced the Lakers into slower half-court actions, which limited spacing and reduced their three-point efficiency to 10-of-31.
“You would like to think that, you know, a foul is a foul. I don’t think that that’s necessarily real,” Reaves said. “There’s obviously some teams in the league… the more physical teams… might get away with a little bit here and there but you just got to be physical back… try to play next play mentality.”
The Thunder’s offensive balance also stood out to the Lakers guard, especially with Jalen Williams scoring 23 points and Isaiah Joe adding 19 off the bench. “They play the game the right way… I would say, you know, 95% of the time they make the right play, make the right read… put stress on your defense.”
Reaves noted that Los Angeles has shown defensive improvement recently but admitted adjustments are still needed. “If you nitpick every game, you’re going to find stuff that you can get better at… that’s the beautiful thing about basketball is you’re never going to perfect it.”
Asked about the gap between the teams, he pointed to consistency as a defining difference. “Their consistency is I think one of the biggest reasons why they’re so good… they know exactly what they’re going to do every single night.”
The Lakers remain fifth in the Western Conference standings and continue to manage injuries, including Luka Doncic’s absence, as they prepare to face San Antonio while trying to rediscover offensive flow and late-game composure.
