Lakers’ old weakness came back to haunt them vs. Thunder

Many reasons explain why the Lakers are trailing their best-of-seven second-round playoff series against the Thunder.

The Thunder’s depth has overwhelmed the Lakers, evident by the 82-39 combined margin the Thunder’s reserves outscored the Lakers’ in Game 1 and Game 2.

The Lakers, including Austin Reaves, have struggled against the Thunder’s drop coverage in the second-round series. NBAE via Getty Images

Or the fact the Thunder outscored the Lakers by 22 points across the 33 minutes that Thunder superstar and reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t play in the first two games.

The Lakers have struggled taking care of the ball: The Thunder averaged 23 points off the Lakers’ 19.5 turnovers in the first two games.

The Thunder also averaged 19 second-chance points despite only grabbing nine offensive rebounds per game — highlighting how efficient they were with an extra scoring opportunity.

These are the areas the Lakers were better during the first round, especially toward the end of their series victory over the Rockets.

And were significantly better throughout the regular season.

But the Thunder also exploited an old Lakers’ weakness during the first two games in Oklahoma City: The Lakers struggle against teams that deploy drop coverage defensively. 

The issue is far from new.

It was a talking point from coach JJ Redick after the Lakers’ Feb. 22 home loss to the Celtics, a team that deployed a deep drop coverage to stifle the Lakers’ offense, which mustered 89 points in defeat — their third-lowest scoring total of the season.

The Lakers became less efficient against drop coverage throughout most of December and January before improving throughout February, March and the end of the regular season, utilizing the proper counters.

That wasn’t the case in the first two games against the Thunder.

The Thunder had their big men in drop for most of Game 1, with the Lakers not creating quality looks against the coverage — in part because of poor shotmaking but also the team and players not using the proper counters.

The Lakers need to use proper counters to solve the Thunder’s drop coverage. Getty Images

Too many drag screens that didn’t create quality offense. 

Not enough stack sets. Not enough pull-up 3-pointers. Not enough Gortat screens. 

“Our options out of early offense, specifically, we ran so many just early drags,” Redick responded ahead of Game 2 when asked what stood out from the offensive film of Game 1. “Which has been a great play for AR [Austin Reaves], but was not a great PPP [points per possession] play for us [Tuesday] night. So just trying to be organized with early offense.”

The Lakers struggled against the Thunder’s drop in Game 2, but they also faced it less often because the Thunder decided to hedge/blitz more — specifically when Reaves handled the ball coming off a screen.

The Lakers are very comfortable in this situation.

The counters are more natural for them after seeing these types of coverages more since Luka Doncic joined the franchise in February 2025.

But the Thunder’s decision to go away from what was working masked an issue that it looked like the Lakers had overcome toward the end of the regular season.

If the Lakers don’t consistently tap back into those counters from the late winter/early spring against the Thunder’s drop, their season will likely end this week.