While the NBA regular season ends, Oklahoma City Thunder is loud with the best record, resembling the best team in the League. But not Sunday.
Just a game deleted not having succeeded in 70 victories, the Thunder fell at home after a dominant performance by Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers won the 126-99 victory after taking a big two-digit lead in the first half and never looking back.
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After a relatively tight first quarter, the Lakers began to run away in the second setting, advancing up to 29 points. The score of 78-56 at halftime scored the most points that the Thunder has granted in half this season.
The massive advance of the was supported by a stellar half of Luka Dončić, who finished with 22 points in the first half, including five 3 points. The Lakers have combined for 15 points of 3 half-time in total-for the most part in one half of the history of the franchise-with Austin Reaves, Dorian Finney-Smith and Gabe Vincent in three triplets each in half.
This domination continued in the second half, while the Lakers kept thunder at a distance from the arm. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of OKC continued his MVP campaign with a performance of 26 points, but became aimlessly towards the end of the match. He and the rest of the Thunder had trouble cutting the deficit, even though the Lakers were turning the ball more than 15 times.
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The great victory of the Lakers was supported by solid bench performances of Finney-Smith and Vincent, and an increase in the second half of LeBron James, who finished with 19 points. But it was Dončić’s magic that really stood out: even a bloody lip halfway from the second half could not stop Dončić, who finished with 30 points after putting wild photos.
And to top it off, Bonny James obtained a 3 -point in the last minute of the match. Overall, a great game for Los Angeles.
While the Thunder, at 64-14, has the seeded n ° 1 already finished, victories like these are essential for the Lakers at this stage of the season. The east is currently third in the Western Conference, holding a 48-30 file with Sunday’s victory.
But the middle of the west is incredibly tight at the moment: five other teams are in one or two Lakers victories, all these teams also won behind-season behind the scenes. With four regular season games, the Lakers can always secure as high as the seeded n ° 2 while potentially falling from the first six places to avoid the game tournament.
