{"id":68434,"date":"2024-03-16T09:45:08","date_gmt":"2024-03-16T13:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=68434"},"modified":"2024-03-16T09:45:08","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T13:45:08","slug":"former-star-claims-lakers-will-beat-this-team-in-the-first-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/16\/former-star-claims-lakers-will-beat-this-team-in-the-first-round\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Star Claims Lakers &#8220;Will&#8221; Beat This Team in the First Round"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the Lakers and Warriors face off in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/michaelcorvo_\/status\/1768721390344278251\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a playoff-like atmosphere tonight<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/o\/onealsh01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shaquille O\u2019Neal<\/a> made a bold claim about them on \u201cInside the NBA\u201d Friday, taking a dig at the No. 2-seeded OKC Thunder.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;The Lakers or the Warriors could beat the Thunder in the first round.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shaq \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n<p>(via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBAonTNT?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@NBAonTNT<\/a>)<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Q18W2K2p8l\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Q18W2K2p8l<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ClutchPoints\/status\/1768768058024247557?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 15, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Neal eventually doubled down on his remarks, saying the Lakers or Warriors &#8220;will&#8221; beat OKC regardless of a 1-8 or 2-7 matchup.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both teams, who have etched their names championship glory, are on track to duke it out in the 2024 Play-in as the No. 9 and 10 seeds, respectively. Focusing on his former franchise, how accurate are Shaq\u2019s comments amid the Lakers\u2019 spiraling season? If LA made it to the first-round, how well would they match up against a young and hungry OKC squad?<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Former Star Claims Lakers &#8220;Will&#8221; Beat This Team in the First Round<\/h2>\n<h3><b>Background: Lakers-Thunder Season Series<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Lakers may not be able to beat many top-tier teams in the West, but they had OKC\u2019s number in three of their four matchups together. LA\u2019s last win against OKC came on Mar. 4. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/russeda01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">D\u2019Angelo Russell<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> led them with 26 points (9\/17 FG, 5\/11 3PT, 3\/5 FT), six rebounds, four steals, three assists and a block. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisan02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anthony Davis<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> chipped in 24 points (7\/12 FG) and 12 rebounds, while <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">LeBron James<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> poured in a near triple-double (19 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists). The Lakers also held <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gilgesh01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to 20 points, four assists and four steals that night and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/holmgch01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chet Holmgren<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to 15 points on 6\/14 shooting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The purple and gold, who are now 36-31, have a mere 15 games remaining in the regular season. That means 15 games to gain momentum heading into the Play-in, and 15 more chances for the team to get back to full strength.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Thunder, meanwhile, are standing at 46-20 and are poised to have one of their best seasons since losing in the first round of the 2020 playoffs\u2014not to mention the best season of head coach Mark Daigneault\u2019s career. At times occupying the top seed in the conference, SGA, Chet and the rest of the Thunder are making some noise in a West that\u2019s loaded with much more playoff experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Potential Matchup Between the Lakers and Thunder<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Considering LA\u2019s winning record over the Thunder this season, Shaq\u2019s prediction may not be so bold after all. The Thunder, aside from their win over the Lakers in December, have had no answer for them in the three games since then. In that span, Davis averaged 25.7 points, 12.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game\u2014along with one steal and one block. James has impressed with a line of 28 points, 8.3 rebounds and 7 assists. And Russell (18 PPG, 4 APG) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/reaveau01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Austin Reaves<\/a> (14 PPG, 7 APG) also made their marks in all victories.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/teams\/traditional?OpponentTeamID=1610612760&amp;TeamID=1610612747\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Lakers have managed to exploit OKC<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019s top-five defense through their outside shooting and paint dominance, among other factors. LA averaged nearly 117 points per game against OKC this season on 50% shooting from the field, 41% from deep and 81% from the line. They also put up 46 rebounds\u201437 of those on the defensive end\u2014and 30 assists per game. Meanwhile, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/teams\/traditional?TeamID=1610612760&amp;OpponentTeamID=1610612747\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OKC averaged<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> 115.5 points per game on .456\/.333\/.868 splits, along with 42 rebounds, 24.5 assists, 9.5 steals and 6.5 blocks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">LA\u2019s height advantage has led to success in the key, both in terms of scoring and rebounding. An underrated aspect of the Lakers\u2019 last win was <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/thunder\/news\/okc-thunder-offense-crumbles-in-loss-to-los-angeles-lakers\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a 55-38 margin<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on the boards that sealed the deal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The team\u2019s defense has also stifled OKC\u2019s third-ranked offense, going for seven steals and six blocks per contest. Limiting Gilgeous-Alexander and Holmgren has been crucial, even if other players scored double-digits in the process. The Thunder\u2019s star duo has averaged a combined 43.1 points per game, accounting for nearly 38% of OKC\u2019s points against LA this season. It\u2019s been another key reason why the Lakers figured out and frustrated the Thunder throughout the year.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>The Last Word<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Lakers\u2019s bonuses in size, shooting and defense allowed them to thrive against a solid yet inexperienced Thunder team. If both teams meet in the playoffs, LA\u2019s past performances should put OKC on upset watch. The team has developed and executed several tactics that have foiled the Thunder\u2019s chances. As a result, they have as good of a chance as any other contender to send the Thunder home early.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the Lakers and Warriors face off in a playoff-like atmosphere tonight,\u00a0Shaquille O\u2019Neal made a bold claim about them on \u201cInside the NBA\u201d Friday, taking a dig at the No. 2-seeded OKC Thunder. &quot;The Lakers or the Warriors could beat the Thunder in the first round.&quot; \u2014 Shaq \ud83d\udc40 (via @NBAonTNT)pic.twitter.com\/Q18W2K2p8l &mdash; ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) March [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":68446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,26,62,22],"tags":[240,4556,4292,307,38,1489],"class_list":["post-68434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-nba","category-thunder","tag-anthony-davis","tag-austin-reaves","tag-chet-holmgren","tag-dangelo-russell","tag-lebron-james","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}