After a tough defeat to the Denver Nuggets, the Los Angeles Lakers made their way back to play on Monday with a challenging home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Even though they were the top seed in the Western Conference, the Thunder were playing the second night of a back-to-back. As a result, the Lakers won 116-104 with ease.

The Thunder jumped off to an early 13-2 lead in the opening quarter thanks to five points from Chet Holmgren, four from Josh Giddey, and one each from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The Lakers’ ire was rising after Austin Reaves was given a technical foul early in the game.

But Thunder had to call a rapid timeout when LeBron James threw Anthony Davis. Following the timeout, Oklahoma City continued its strong start and took a double-digit lead because to some careless errors committed by Los Angeles.

After Taurean Prince, Reaves, and Rui Hachimura all made successive long shots, the Lakers began to heat up on the court. Reaves added another three-pointer at the end of the first quarter, and Dinwiddie converted a layup to tie the score at 25.

After the game finished without a basket, LeBron James started the second quarter by attacking more, which gave him and his teammates easy opportunities. Reaves kept making good long-range shots, and the Lakers unexpectedly jumped out to a double-digit lead, completely altering the game’s trajectory.

Leading 52–43 at the half, the Lakers used their incredible vigour to close the half on a second run, this time led by James and Davis. After that, Lu Dort intensified his play to help the Thunder regain the lead.

Once again, the Lakers got off to a strong start in the third quarter thanks to deep jumpers from Russell and Reaves. The Thunder faced difficulties because to L.A.’s size as Davis persisted in wearing them down on the interior. The Lakers got off to their greatest lead of the game, 79-64, with a 12-0 run.

Los Angeles was comfortably ahead 89-72 going into the fourth quarter, having applied even more pressure to end the third quarter.

Early in the fourth quarter, Prince and Russell carried on the Lakers’ spectacular shooting, increasing their lead to 20 points.

Given that the Thunder were playing on the second night of a back-to-back, they were undoubtedly playing on tired legs. They were unable to respond in kind as Russell sank two more three-pointers to put the game out of reach.