The Oklahoma City Thunder will be out to remain perfect in the playoffs when they face the host Los Angeles Lakers on Monday in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals with a chance to move on to the next round.
The top-seeded Thunder, who swept the Phoenix Suns in the first round before building a 3-0 lead in this best-of-seven series with the Lakers, have won each postseason game by at least 18 points.
The latest convincing victory came Saturday when Oklahoma City rolled 131-108 in Los Angeles. Ajay Mitchell took a turn as leading man, scoring 24 points with 10 assists. The second-year player reached a playoff career high in both categories.
Mitchell has averaged 17.4 points with 5.0 assists in the Thunder’s seven playoff games, starting the last five after Jalen Williams went down with a left hamstring injury in Game 2 of the opening round.
“Every time I’m out on the court, I just want to prove myself, be a winning player and help my team win,” said Mitchell, a second-round draft pick in 2024 out of UC Santa Barbara. “That’s really what’s been on my mind every time I play.”
With the Lakers focused on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren has averaged 21.3 points with 10.0 rebounds in this series. Gilgeous-Alexander has averaged 21.0 points with 5.7 assists while shooting 45.8% from the floor, well under his regular-season marks of 31.1 points, 6.6 assists and 55.3% shooting.
“They obviously haven’t been my best performances, but I think I’ve been able to help the team win and that’s the most important thing,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “If the rest of the playoff run, or the rest of my career looked like what it looked like the past few games, I’d be OK with it because we won games.”
After taking down the Houston Rockets in six games during the first round, the Lakers have their collective back to the wall. Star guard Luka Doncic (hamstring) has not played in the postseason and not expected to make his debut in Game 4.
The Lakers got Austin Reaves (oblique) back five games into the playoffs, but he has shot just 40.0% from the floor against the Thunder — and that includes a 10-of-16 shooting performance in Game 2.
LeBron James has averaged 23.0 points with 6.7 assists in the series, but the 41-year-old could use some help, especially on defense. Los Angeles has allowed 121.3 points per game in the series.
“I wouldn’t say I’m angry or disappointed,” James said. “I mean, obviously you’re disappointed in the simple fact of being down 3-0, obviously. But I mean, we still got life and that’s all you can ask for. And we got to be much better on Monday. (We’ll) see what happens.”
The Lakers have led at halftime in each of the past two games, but they have been steamrolled in the second half when the Thunder kick things into a higher gear.
As good as the Thunder have been across the board, the most daunting stat for the Lakers is that none of the previous 161 NBA teams to trail 3-0 in a best-of-seven series has rallied to win.
“This situation sucks, but that doesn’t give us the license to quit,” Reaves said. “We got to come in here and compete. We owe the organization that, we owe each other that, we owe our fans that. So, we’re going to come here Monday and play as hard as we can.”
