Jake LaRavia did not hide the frustration after the Los Angeles Lakers were routed 139-96 by the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night, especially with Luka Doncic leaving with a left hamstring injury.
“It’s something you never want to see as a teammate,” LaRavia said. “All the prayers for him. Hopefully everything’s good with him, but yeah, you never want to see that.”
The Lakers were overwhelmed from the opening minutes, and LaRavia said the tone was set by poor execution and Oklahoma City’s pressure. “We have to set the tone. We have to beat a more physical team and we got to play together.”
He said the game started to slip almost immediately. “We started off the game with a lot of turnovers and they scored on pretty much every turnover,” LaRavia said.
LaRavia also took responsibility for the opening sequence. “We didn’t execute the first play. I messed up the first play, which doesn’t set the tone for the team. So, you know, I got to be held accountable for that.”
The Thunder turned those mistakes into a massive first-half lead, and LaRavia said the Lakers never recovered. “We just got to focus on the next game and continue to keep our head straight.”
Asked what made the Thunder so difficult to handle, he pointed to their style. “We know OKC is a very physical team. They play very handsy.”
He said the Lakers were warned before tipoff about the challenge. “JJ before the game talked about having more poise than them.”
But once the turnovers began, LaRavia said the crowd and Oklahoma City’s pace made the hole deeper. “When you start the game and you don’t execute offensively and you have those turnovers and they score off the turnovers and then the crowd’s into it early on, we kind of dug ourselves a hole that was pretty hard to get out of.”
LaRavia said the loss carried extra weight because of where it came in the season. “Obviously this close to the end of the season, we would have wanted it not to go that way.”
Still, he tried to frame it as a reset point with five games left. “It’s ultimately one of 82,” LaRavia said. “We still got five games left. Three seed, that’s where we’re trying to stay at.”
He closed by calling the matchup a measuring stick. “It was a test for us as far as playing against the number one team,” LaRavia said. “We just got to focus on the next game and continue to make that playoff push.”
