Basketball: Thunder vs Warriors

Basketball: Oklahoma City Thunder star Jalen Williams exited Wednesday’s 105-101 win over the Golden State Warriors with a right eye injury just before halftime and did not return. Williams went down grabbing at his eye after Jonathan Kuminga dunked over him with 39 seconds left in the first half. Williams stayed on the floor for a couple of minutes before he limped and got helped to the locker room, and was seen with an ice bag on the area during halftime.

In 16 minutes of action, Williams had 13 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, and 2 steals, helping the Thunder to a 62-50 lead at intermission. Williams is second on the Thunder averaging 22.1 points per game and leads the team with 6.5 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game. On November 24th 2024, the Los Angeles Lakers were ready for their first 2024-25 matchup with the Denver Nuggets at Crypto.com Arena.

For the first time since November 13th 2024, Rui Hachimura returned to the lineup after missing four straight games due to an ankle injury. The Lakers played well in Hachimura’s absence, winning road games at SAS and NOP and a home game against UTA before a tough home loss against ORL in which Los Angeles missed 4 free throws in the final minute. Nonetheless, JJ Redick was happy to have Hachimura back.

Hachimura’s size and athleticism was important to the makeup of the roster, shooting 50.0% from 3, including an impressive 13 for 22 above the break of 59.1%.

The area where Hachimura had been below his career averages was from 2-point range, where he was converting only 39.1%. Furthermore, Hachimura was 21 of 41 in the restricted area, 5 for 23 in the non-restricted area, and 1 for 7 from mid-range. Those numbers would come up as Hachimura converted 76.2% of his looks in the restricted area in 2023, 40.7% in the non-restricted area, and 41.9% from mid-range.

In Hachimura’s place in the starting lineup, Dalton Knecht was terrific on offense, averaging 23.8 points on 60.3% shooting and 57.6% from 3. Knecht averaged 4.8 boards, and was a +6.3, second only to D’Angelo Russell’s +6.5. Before the ORL game, Redick was asked if he had considered keeping Knecht in the starting lineup. There was no definitive decision, but Redick’s expectation was Hachimura would stay in the starting lineup.

Redick went on to say that even if Knecht returned to the bench, he had clearly earned more minutes. Whatever designation Knecht had, coming off the bench or as a starter, his role would not change at all. Coaching staff had to be cognizant about getting Knecht longer stretches on the court. The Nuggets lost a tough home game against the Dallas Mavericks and likely did not arrive in Los Angeles until around 2 a.m. ahead of the back-to-back against the Lakers.

Nikola Jokic returned after missing the previous three contests due to the birth of his second child, but he looked dominant, scoring 33 points with 17 rebounds and 10 assists. The Nuggets had also been playing without Aaron Gordon. In Gordon’s place, third-year pro Peyton Watson played well, averaging 13.3 points and 5.0 rebounds, blocking three shots against the Mavericks.

The Nuggets lost Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in free agency to Orlando, and replaced him internally with third-year wing Christian Braun, who was averaging a career-high 16.2 points on 55.0% shooting, including 42.5% from 3, plus 5.3 boards, and 1.4 steals. November 14th 2024 was the second meeting of the season between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Lakers with a few new faces and some missing. The Lakers were 6-4 this season and had won two straight before this meeting. The Lakers lost 131-114 to the Grizzlies earlier this season but the Lakers did not have Anthony Davis in the lineup.

Davis was probable for the matchup and he led the National Basketball Association (NBA) with 31.2 points per game and 13th in rebounds 10.4 per game.

The Grizzlies were 7-4 on the season while being one of the most injury-riddled teams in the league. The Grizzlies would be without Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, and Marcus Smart for this matchup. The Grizzlies won three straight and five of the last six games with all five wins coming by double-digits and the lone loss by two points to the Nets. There was no love lost between the Grizzlies and the Lakers, who faced off for the second time in the season.

The two sides memorably matched up in the first round of the 2023 NBA playoffs, with the Lakers victorious in six games. The series was headlined by the interactions between LeBron James and then-Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks. However, the bad blood between the Western Conference foes started earlier than that. James and Bane engaged in trash talk during a January 2022 game, including James yelling at Bane.

It created a viral moment, but, over two years later, any potential bad history looked to be in the rearview mirror. At least that was what it seemed. The Grizzlies defeated the Lakers 131-114 at home and the beef slightly percolated. In October 2020, the Miami Heat started the game sending a double-team at Davis, but it did not take long to discover that there was not much they could do to slow down the Lakers.

In Davis’ debut, he scored 34 points, grabbing 9 rebounds and blocking 3 shots to help the Lakers crush the Heat 116-98 and took Game 1 of the NBA Finals in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Davis’ Finals debut performance was surpassed only by some all-time greats. Davis’ 34-point Game 1 performance was behind only Shaquille O’Neal’s 43 points and George Mikan’s 42 points for most points by a player in his Lakers Finals debut. Davis made 10 free throws, one fewer than the entire Heat team made in Game 1. Davis waited eight seasons to get here, and he did not waste any time making his presence felt.

While the Heat watched Goran Dragic, Jimmy Butler, and Bam Adebayo all sustain injuries and scored only 30 points, Davis scored 23 of his points in that span. Davis helped the Lakers finish that massive run with a flurry as he scored on a putback, a fast-break dunk, a 15-foot jumper, and then another dunk to give the Lakers an 87-55 lead with 6:04 left in the third. Davis had been preparing for this moment all season.

Davis was not taking anything for granted and that he felt the nerves of playing at this level for the first time. In September 2020, the Lakers ranked among the league’s three favorites all season. The Heat did not, but they had been a different team in Orlando with new starting lineup, remade identity, and more powerful two-way force. The Heat faced a slightly tougher slate of playoff opponents than the Lakers, and outscored them by 4.5 points per 100 possessions, two points fatter than their regular-season margin.

Perhaps the bubble took a larger toll on the Los Angeles Clippers and Milwaukee Bucks.

Three key Clippers left and returned, but every team dealt with more or less the same on-the-ground realities in Orlando. Two of Heat’s regular-season starters Adebayo and Kendrick Nunn contracted covid during the hiatus. The Heat was 12-3 in the playoffs, same as the Lakers. The Heat ran roughshod over weakening teams in fourth quarters. The Heat represented the best defense the Lakers faced in the postseason.

When the Lakers shifted Davis to center, Adebayo guarded Davis, and the Heat could switch most James-Davis pick-and-rolls even if doing so left Butler or Jae Crowder jostling with Davis. But despite all the clamor for the Lakers to go small, there was really no statistical evidence the Lakers needed to guard against anyone but the micro-ball Houston Rockets. The Lakers were plus-55 in 194 combined postseason minutes with the James/Davis/Dwight Howard and James/Davis/JaVale McGee groupings.

The Lakers were plus-21 in 123 minutes when James and Davis play without any of Howard, McGee, or Markieff Morris. The James/Morris/Davis trio was a monstrous plus-38 in 68 minutes. The Lakers would start big, and play a good chunk of the series that way. The Lakers were huge with James, Davis, and a 7-foot center on the floor. The Lakers could switch pick-and-rolls and double-team opposing stars, tactics they sometimes used against Butler and Dragic, knowing two fast and very large humans still lurked around the paint, ready to barricade the rim and leapt at shooters.

If the Lakers redirected their offense away from Adebayo, that meant going away from Davis too, a win for the Heat.

The Lakers in their bigger alignments used the James-Howard/McGee pick-and-roll more than the James-Davis version. Having Adebayo on Howard might put him in more of Lakers’ two-man action. It would also keep Adebayo closer to the rim, where the Heat needed him. The Heat did a good job keeping opponents out of the restricted area, but enemies who encroached shot well, 66% in the regular season and 64% in the playoffs.

The Lakers were the league’s fiercest rim-attacking team. Almost 40% of the Lakers’ attempts came at the rim in the regular season, second most, and they converted a league-best 69% there. Almost half James’s postseason shots came at the basket. James rammed in 76% of them. James shot 64% on 2s overall, the best postseason mark of his storied career.

The Heat should want Adebayo either near the basket, or guarding James on switches late in possessions. Starting Adebayo on Howard might be the best way to accomplish that and decreased the chances of Adebayo suffering early foul trouble, something the Heat could not afford. The Heat was a team-high plus-89 with Adebayo on the floor in the playoffs, and minus-14 when he sat.

Leaving Crowder on Howard would risk a bundle of Lakers offensive rebounds and the accompanying hacks.

If Davis got rolling against Crowder, the Heat could send help from their biggest and most explosive defender in Adebayo. The Heat was fast, and connected on defense. The Heat flew around, and rarely made mistakes. Swarming Davis and James in the paint invited more Lakers. The Heat would accept that tradeoff. Only the Bucks and the Toronto Raptors allowed more 3-point attempts than the Heat during the regular season.

That had changed some in the playoffs, probably due to the Heat going smaller, but Miami still defended from the rim out. Elite shooting teams could wobble that structure. The Lakers were not such a team. The Lakers attempted relatively few 3s and hit at about a league-average rate. The Boston Celtics solved the Heat’s zone by the end of the conference finals.

The Heat had allowed 1.1 points per possession when playing zone, the zone had worked for stretches, but it had been demystified. The Lakers studied the Celtics’s counters and had answers the Celtics did not. James and Davis could hurt the zone from the middle as passers and scorers. Davis, McGee, and Howard were lob threats in dead zones along the baseline.

Zones were vulnerable to offensive rebounding, the Lakers had gobbled offensive boards all season.

The Lakers had the second-worst turnover rate in the playoffs, and the Heat’s zone had wrenched away lots of steals. After posting a below-average mark in the regular season, the Lakers in the playoffs had scored more than one point per possession in their half-court offense and tops among those who advanced beyond the first round. The Lakers had gotten enough 3-point shooting, including some from unlikely sources, Rajon Rondo and Morris were 30-of-68 combined from deep in the playoffs.

Danny Green and Caldwell-Pope had hit 39% combined. Kyle Kuzma and Alex Caruso struggled all season. The Heat were disciplined in transition defense, a must against the Lakers’ fast-breaking, touchdown-passing machine. A few cold-shooting games from the Lakers, and the Heat could be in business. The Lakers could probably switch the Butler-Adebayo two-man game, even when their centers started off defending Adebayo.

The Lakers could also defend traditionally having Howard dropped back to corral Butler and banking on the three defenders behind the play. The Lakers had to be on high alert for Butler to reject screens and sliced the other direction. It was the Dragic-Adebayo pick-and-roll that tore apart the Celtics. If the Lakers switched a guard onto Adebayo, they could have James or Davis rescued that guy with a second switch on the fly, James was really good at that.

The Lakers could stick James on Dragic late in close games to switch more smoothly, but that meant someone else had to guard Butler.

The Lakers were better equipped than the Celtics to switch the Dragic-Butler pick-and-roll. Most centers were wary leaping out to contest 30 feet from the rim. The Heat might trap high on the floor and force the Lakers to pass their way into a good shot. The Lakers could spring off-ball actions designed to generate mismatches for James and Davis. The Heat could not get much smaller than the Butler-Crowder-Adebayo trio against the Lakers lineups.

The Heat closed Games 4 and 6 against the Celtics. On the night the Clippers landed Kawhi Leonard as a free agent and traded for Paul George in July 2019, Clippers coach Doc Rivers talked with the team’s president of basketball operations, Lawrence Frank, dozens of times. There was a debate over just how much the Clippers should give up in the trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder for George.

The conversation had been ongoing for days, but by the night of July 5th 2020, it was time to decide. Four future first-round picks and promising young guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was a lot. But trading for George and signing Leonard would make them instant title contenders. Clippers chairman Steve Ballmer would make the final decision, but he wanted their opinion, too.

For Rivers, the choice was simple.

If you had a chance to win a championship, you went for it. Because those chances did not come around very often. In August 2020, the first day of the NBA playoffs was chalk. The No. 1 seeded Milwaukee Bucks started the second day by losing to the Orlando Magic, and the No. 1 seeded Lakers ended the day by losing to the No. 8 seeded Portland Trail Blazers.

It was the first time since 2003 in which both No. 1 seeds lost their openers. James scored 23 points, pulled in 17 rebounds, and dished out 15 assists while Davis poured in 28 points of his own, but the Lakers role players shot 4-of-22 from 3-point range. The Lakers simply could not score enough to win when that happened. Trail Blazers’ role players were not great either, but Damian Lillard’s 34 points were enough to lead them to a victory.

Now the Trail Blazers would need to only win three games out of six to stun the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed. The Lakers would have to go back to the drawing board if they wanted to avoid such a humiliation. What happened was completely and utterly unacceptable. The Lakers were outscored by nine points in JaVale McGee’s 13 minutes on the floor, they lost the game by seven points.

That was not a coincidence.

The Lakers were outscored during McGee’s minutes in all seven of his appearances in the bubble. In Orlando, the Lakers were outscored by 66 points in McGee’s 121 minutes on the floor. The Lakers outscored opponents by 26 points in the minutes they played without McGee. This was not rocket science. The Lakers started every game down several points because they were starting the wrong lineup.

The Lakers exacerbated the problem by sending that same lineup out there at the start of the third quarter.