The Oklahoma City are taking on the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night on the second leg of a back-to-back. On the front side, the OKC Thunder were able to crush the Golden State Warriors despite being down All-NBA forward Jalen Williams, All-Defensive Guard Lu Dort and their best bench bucket getter in Aaron Wiggins.
Against the Golden State Warriors, the Thunder limited an offense typically powered by Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler to just 102 points on the night, with the Bay Area Ballers best scoring night coming from Jonathan Kuminga, who only cracked 13 points. A frustrating and inefficient night for Curry and Butler was the headline from Oklahoma City’s blow out victory, pushing the Thunder to an 11-1 record.
Tonight, as the Oklahoma City Thunder get set to host the Los Angeles Lakers, that trend continues. Most importantly, the Thunder are missing two All-Defensive members in Williams and Dort while having to matchup with a Lakers squad with a pair of offensive engines in Superstar Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves who is playing like an All-Star lock at this point of the 2025-26 campaign.
While the Lakers are down LeBron James, as they await the legendary forward to make his season debut, they remain healthy outside of that as they tip-off a road trip starting tonight in Bricktown.
Doncic is always a handful to deal with, including for these Thunder. In each of the last two seasons, Oklahoma City has posted a top five defense which includes a historic unit on that side of the floor last year, and yet Doncic has found ways to propel his teams to wins. Most notably ousting the Thunder in the second round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs with the Dallas Mavericks before enjoying a blowout win over the Bricktown Ballers last March that sent the NBA world into a spiral believing the Purple and Gold were the biggest threats to the Thunder.
After the Lakers were put out in the opening round of the playoffs, and the Thunder went on to win a title, the two sides meet again for this early November clash.
Dort has been able to hamper Doncic the best of anyone in the league and without his screen navigation and ability to play physical with the Lakers superstar it will be tough to slow him down.
Granted, the Thunder will likely lead on a team style of collapsing on Doncic repeatedly and with nearly all five guys on the floor and force his playmaking to be what does Oklahoma City in if his teammates can cash in shots.
When Doncic gets a rare isolation attempt this will be a big test for third-year guard Cason Wallace to step up on the head of the snake, something he did admirably a night ago against Curry.
