At this point, Austin Reaves must feel haunted anytime he’s inside Paycom Center. It’s been pure bad vibes this year when the Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Lakers squared off. That has continued into their NBA playoff Round 2 series.
The Thunder came away with a 108-90 Game 1 win over the Lakers. It took a little longer than anticipated, but the reigning NBA champions turned this into another ho-hum victory. What makes this even more impressive is that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander looked human with 18 points and seven turnovers.
None of it mattered. The Thunder clamped down on the Lakers’ offense. While LeBron James had a retro outing with 27 points and six assists, Austin Reaves couldn’t pick up the slack of Luka Doncic’s absence to make things interesting down the stretch.
Reaves had a forgettable eight points on 3-of-16 shooting and six assists. He added to his recent trend of no-showing against OKC’s league-best defense. Over the last two seasons, he’s averaged an ugly 16.5 points on 42.5% shooting and 3.7 assists in six regular-season matchups against the Thunder. A far cry from his usual 20-point production.
You can probably assign some of the blame to Reave’s health. He missed a month with an oblique strain that he — ironically enough — sustained in OKC’s Apr. 2 win over the Lakers. He returned in Los Angeles’ Games 5 and 6 against the Houston Rockets, but it’s obvious he’s still working his way back.
There were a couple of times that Reaves grimaced at his side because he fought over a screen. He didn’t possess the burst to get by any of the Thunder’s top perimeter defenders. Despite battling through a serious muscle injury, the 27-year-old refuses to use that as an excuse.
“I mean, nobody cares about that,” Reaves said. “I got to go out there and play better.”
It’s going to take a David-esque performance for the Lakers to beat the Thunder — much less make this Round 2 series interesting. One of their slim avenues to that is Reaves helping James. Not only would the wins speak for themselves, but they also buy Doncic more time to return to this Round 2 matchup.
So far, that hasn’t been the case. If the Thunder continue to make Reaves look like an undrafted rookie, then they should make quick work of the Lakers. Game 1 showed you that as they cruised to a double-digit win despite a bad Gilgeous-Alexander outing and Jalen Williams being sidelined.
“I mean, obviously, the easy thing is to make more shots,” Reaves said. “I got to my spots multiple times and just missed a couple of easy shots. But for the most part, you’ve got to limit the turnovers. They pressure the ball really well, just got to give us an opportunity to get a shot on goal every possession.”
“We made too many mental mistakes.”
Austin Reaves (8 PTS, 6 AST) speaks to the media after the Lakers’ 108-90 Game 1 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. pic.twitter.com/xM2NwaOMxt
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) May 6, 2026
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: OKC Thunder continue to shut off Austin Reaves in Game 1 win over Lakers