Player Grades: Lakers vs. Thunder

Grading every Lakers player’s performance from the team’s 101-93 loss to the Thunder.

All good things must come to an end. For the Lakers, after an unbeaten first year in the NBA Cup and a hot start this season, their run came crashing to an end this week.

After being throttled by the Suns on Tuesday, the Lakers were backed into a must-win scenario against the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. Despite playing one of their best defensive games of the season, the Lakers lacked the offense, ironically, to pick up the win on Friday.

And just like that, the Lakers are effectively out of the NBA Cup. For now, it’s only a formality and not a technicality that they are eliminated. They would need roughly 437 things to go their way on Tuesday in the final day of NBA Cup play to still make it out of group play.

Honestly, as our former fearless leader noted, I view it as remarkably ethical that the Lakers chose to win the NBA Cup before capitalism took over and ruined the sanctity and purity of the tournament.

So, let’s dive into the loss. As always, grades are based on expectations for each player. A “B” grade represents the average performance for that player.

Rui Hachimura

30 minutes, 8 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks, 4-7 FG, 0-1 3PT, -8

The fact I can’t tell you much of what Rui did in this game feels like a pretty good summation. Three stocks is a solid night from him defensively, but it was one of those games where he just kind of drifts around offensively for too long.

Grade: C+

LeBron James

34 minutes, 12 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 5-13 FG, 0-4 3PT, 2-2 FT, -12

When I wrote the line about not having enough offense in this one, it was directed pretty squarely at LeBron.

We’re at a point now where LeBron’s turnovers really need to become a talking point. With five more on Friday, LeBron has had at least four in each of the last nine games and is averaging 5.3 in that span.

Pair that with a shooting night like Friday’s and you get a really bad LeBron game.

Grade: D

Anthony Davis

38 minutes, 15 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal, 4 blocks, 5-10 FG, 0-1 3PT, 5-7 FT, -5

While AD was as good as he typically is defensively and rebounding on Friday, he simply did not do enough offensively. Against a smaller OKC side, AD needs more than 15 points.

Part of that falsl on those around him who need to feed him the ball more. Part of that falls on Redick for not getting him more shots. Part of it falls on AD as well. But there should be no scenario where he only has 10 field goal attempts against the Thunder.

Grade: C+

Dalton Knecht

33 minutes, 20 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 7-16 FG, 6-12 3PT, -10

There probably wasn’t a bigger bright spot for the Lakers on Friday than Knecht. He is thriving in the starting lineup and was of absolutely no blame for a lack of offense for the Lakers.

His late step-back 3-pointer? That’s a man playing with a lot of confidence.

Grade: A

Austin Reaves

29 minutes, 11 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 3-11 FG, 1-9 3PT, -8

I’ll give Austin a bit of pass for his second half on Friday after that nasty, nasty fall he took. Even after that, he had a couple big sequences in the fourth.

But he’s also been in a bit of a funk of late. His playmaking and rebounding hasn’t been there as much and his shot hasn’t been consistent.

Grade: D

D’Angelo Russell

26 minutes, 17 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 6-11 FG, 4-9 3PT, 1-1 FT, +4

The other bright spot on the night was D’Lo. Given his work on both sides of the ball, I thought this was his best game of the season.

Offensively, he seems to have finally found his shot again [knocks on wood]. If he can pair his playmaking with his scoring and add in the rebounding he did on Friday, then you have a great guard off the bench.

Defensively, he was very active. To be honest, a lot of D’Lo’s faults defensively have less to do with effort and more to poor execution.

Grade: A-

Max Christie

23 minutes, 8 points, 1 rebound, 2-3 FG, 0-1 3PT, 4-4 FT, +4

Largely speaking, this was a good Christie game. After those first weeks of this season when he seemed totally lost and played his way out of the rotation, he’s been more or less what was expected since re-entering.

One of the bright spots has been that he’s not attacking the rim simply off two feet anymore, and I’m not even saying that as a joke. He also made a big jumper late after crashing from the corner.

The flip side of that was his pretty inexplicable foul of SGA late. Whether it was a miscommunication or Christie thinking the Lakers had a foul to give, he didn’t even give the defense a chance to get a stop.

Grade: B-

Cam Reddish

13 minutes, 0-1 FG, 0-1 3PT, +2

The Lakers’ issues offensively can be, at the very least, explained by giving 28 minutes to two players who are complete negatives on that end.

Reddish is never going to provide anything offensively with any regularity. He has to be borderline great defensively to warrant playing time.

The problem is, there’s no one on the roster to conceivably give that playing time to, either.

Grade: F

Gabe Vincent

15 minutes, 2 points, 1-1 FG, 1 rebound, 0-2 FT, -7

I’m fully of the mindset by now that, once he’s healthy and back from injury, the Lakers should give Quincy Olivari a couple of games with Vincent’s minutes and see what comes of it.

Right now, there’s just no reason to play Vincent out of not having healthy bodies otherwise.

Grade: F

JJ Redick

I mentioned it during the AD section, but JJ has to shoulder some blame for AD only getting 10 shots in this game. I think this will be a game he looks back on and regrets some decisions.

On the flip side, this is back-to-back strong defensive showings after that blowout against Phoenix. The Thunder average just shy of 114 points per game and the Lakers held them to 101. That felt like very possibly their best defensive game of the season, which makes it more frustrating the offense was so far behind.

Grade: B-

Friday’s DNPs: Christian Koloko, Maxwell Lewis, Armel Traore

Friday’s inactives: Jalen Hood-Schifino, Jaxson Hayes, Bronny James, Quincy Olivari, Jarred Vanderbilt, Christian Wood

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.