Los Angeles Lakers Vs Oklahoma City Thunder

A first round clash which will showcase some of the best talent in the league.

The Lakers have worked wonders with their trades throughout the season, building a star studded roster of Durant, Curry and their young stud Cunningham. They have finished the regular season with the best record in the league which is a milestone in itself.

The Thunder led by one of the young faces of the league, Anthony Edwards, alongside his running mate, Trae Young. They have a very promising young core with some nice complimentary pieces around their main guys. The Thunder are still somewhat in their youth movement, not having pushed the chips all in like their opponent.   

Los Angeles Lakers

As mentioned before the Lakers have pushed the chips all in and are looking to make a strong playoff run. I think it is fair to say the Lakers ‘big 3’ is arguably as good or better than any other combination of three players on a team in the league.

Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and Cade Cunningham are all scoring over 23 points per game this season that three headed monster will be hard to keep at bay.

Los Angeles have another little secret weapon in 2k glitch god, Andre Drummond. Who continues to play at very high level almost guaranteed to notch a double double each game.

There are solid contributions off the bench, with Andrew Nembhard being their 6^th man. He has been constistantly coming off the bench and controlling the second unit with level headed play, demonstrating maturity well beyond his years.

Oklahoma City Thunder

I don’t think there would be a GM in the league that wouldn’t love to have Anthony Edwards, I was going to say he is turning into one of the stars of the league, but I think he might already be there. A true two way player capable of turning a game on his own back.

Pair him with another offensive juggernaut in Trae Young and you have a fairly deadly and dynamic combination.

Alex Curuso and Deandre Hunter and nice supportive pieces who can chip in offensively, but where they add real value is through their defence. I would imagine both of them will have specific assignments in this matchup. You would love Caruso to take Curry, but then that leaves the 6’7” guard in Cunningham to potentially be guarded by Trae which is a nightmare matchup. Curry may be the only matchup for Trae which isn’t ideal. Although what Trae lacks in defence he makes up for on the other end.

There are some decent pieces off the bench in Bagley, Grimes and Hardy. All who can contribute. Grimes who has some defensive prowess might get a specific role in this too.

Match-up History

Throughout their four games played this year, the Lakers have taken the chocolates in all of them. The winning margins have been 13, 4, 12 and 7 points.

In the most recent matchup in late April, both Curry and Young were out. Unfortunately for the Thunder this was a fairly one sided affair resulting in a 13 point win for the Lakers.

Anthony Edwards tried his hardest and put up a team high 38 points, however he was closely following by Cade Cunningham who notched 37.

The Lakers dominated the paint scoring 22 more points in there. The rest of the game numbers are somewhat similar, so it appears the game was won and lost on the inside

Injuries

The Lakers will be fully healthy. Cunningham had some uncertainty coming into this one, but looks like he will be active for game one.

The Thunder will be without their big man in Onyeka Okongwu until game 4 of this round. His addition may be very useful as mentioned before in the last matchup the lakers significantly outscore them in the paint. Okongwu’s defensive present may end replacing the veteran Deandre Jordon once he returns.

 Prediction

For Oklahoma to have successful outings they need stellar performances from Edwards and Young. I would say one if not both would need to be dropping upwards of thirty points for them to have a real shot at getting over the line.  Although they will definitely have their work cut out for them, there is too much high end talent on the roster to completely write them off.

For the Lakers to keep their undefeated record against the Thunder they will have to do the following:

Don’t change a thing…
The Lakers have the best record in the league for a reason. They are fully healthy and do not need to make any changes as of yet. Just keep doing what they are doing and they should be able to get over the line fairly comfortably.

It is a fairly safe bet that in any game either Curry, Durant or Cade will put up big numbers, if not all of them. So as long as this occurs and the rest don’t completely fall of the perch the Lakers should get over the line.

From the 12 votes submitted from GMs around the league, 100% of them are in favour of the Lakers.

I agree with this vote, predicting the Lakers to not only win, but sweep the Thunder in four games.

Either way, this will not the last playoff births for both of these teams.