2026 Playoffs: West Semifinals (1) OKC Thunder Vs (4) LA Lakers

Boils down to insane depth to the point where SGA sits and there's no drop off. Their 2nd unit is the equivalent of an Eastern conference playoff team and their 13th man is a rotation player on most teams in the league.

You can't let up or make any mistakes against them and that's not realistic in the playoffs especially against perimeter defenders like they have. We can keep pace for 2.5 quarters roughly and then the wheels fall off.

Bron and Marcus are going to go down swinging, but this ends tomorrow night.

 

And congrats to all the teams in the league who kept giving them good players at pennies on the dollar. Guess they are all celebrating too right now…

 

Yeah. I was just typing pretty much the same thing

 

You can't beat them in a series with only a 5-6 man rotation;that's for sure.

 

OKC has 2 way players who play both sides of the ball. They have players that are versatile enough to do anything to WIN. Lakers 3 players are more spectacular players as offensive players, but are not good to great defenders. You can see OKC can buckle down on defense on the Lakers depleted roster when the game counts. Even if Luka played, the Lakers offense would had been more potent, they may have outscored OKC in 1 or 2 games, but I would still have OKC winning in a 6 games, because they have players who can do more than score the ball. I'm a huge Austin fan, I want to re-sign him, I will be willing to trade him for only equal or better value in return. No need to panic, Reeves is a great player, he puts his body on the line for you, can make a spectacular shot, don't think he a good fit with Luka who isn't a great defender. I really like Reeves as a player, but with the Lakers personnel, they need more 2 way players to surround Luka to be adaptable enough to win in different ways against teams like OKC and SA.

 

I know that Reaves and Luka can work because I witnessed Luka and Kyrie go to the finals with the proper pieces around them. In no way is Austin a worse defender than Kyrie. He actually has improved in the department of moving his feet and keeping in front of his man.
I get it- people love to pick their whipping boy, every single year.
I just call it as I see it. I was down on Ayton when he was awful, just like I was with LeBron. When they started playing better, they got their flowers.
Yes, Austin hasn’t been good enough, coming back from injury, but he literally would have to average fifty and turn into Amen Thompson on D with Luka out, for us to beat OKC.
It would also be stupid to trade him for spare parts. If you trade him, you better get an as good, or better player in return. Otherwise, you are just solving one problem while creating a new one.
I have yet to see someone here post a realistic trade for AR.
Could we trade him for Giannis? Maybe, BUT we aren’t on one of his preferred destinations and The Greek is a Westbrickian awful fit with Luka.

 

Yes but we gotta stop comparing AR to Kyrie. Kyrie was a bonafide star who had been a champion and was used to delivering in playoff games.
AR is struggling to be effective against the top opposition.

There's a detail I think it's getting missed here. You gotta separate what it is playing regular season or what you do against 25 other teams vs playoff intensity and how you play against the top 5.
AR has been great all year but there's some evidence starting to pop that he struggles against certain defenses like OKC, Houston, Minny... Well, those are the teams we have to beat to win it all so it matters a lot

I don't think you can compare AR and Kyrie. They're the same prototype but they are different levels

 

please stop it, no one is saying it's Reaves fault.

Kyrie is probably a Top 10/15 offensive player ever. He has many more tools in his toolbox than AR, and it's not even close.

 

I present to you 2 players, each in a playoff series against OKC.

Player A: 15.7 pts, 6.2 asts, 2.3 rebs, 1.8 3's, 44.8% from 2, 81.8% from the line for 1.5 FTM

Player B: 18.7 pts, 7.0 asts, 3.3 rebs, 1.3 3's, 48.3% from 2, 80.0% from the line for 6.7 FTM

One of these is a Top 10/15 offensive player ever, a bonafide star who had been a champion and was used to delivering in playoff games, and who has many more tools in his toolbox than the other, and it's not even close. The other is struggling to be effective against the top opposition.

Which one is which?



(And yes, Austin has shot terribly from 3 - and is still producing more than Kyrie did. If Austin shot non-terribly from 3, he would be crushing Kyrie.)

((Also, Luka won a playoff game vs OKC where Kyrie scored 9 pts and another where Kyrie scored 12 pts.))

 

I'm pretty sure that you don't want to compare Austin and Kyrie's stats against Minnesota though.

 

That's a good argument but not sure it provides the conclusion you're trying to reach. There's context to those numbers and they benefit and harm both players. AR is having those numbers whitout Luka, so he has more times the ball and more opportunities and responsibility to score and assist. On the other hand, he then has more attention on him and better defenders.

So I don't think you can just compare the stats and draw a conclusion.
There's also other factors like the competitiveness of the series, OKC has played their starters around and mostly below 30 minutes or how hard they are playing each game. I think they played harder in that April matchup than any game this series. Then, you're cherry picking the stats that serve your point.

In any case, if you think AR is at the level of Kyrie it's up to you. I don't think they are and I love AR and really want to have him succeed in a Laker jersey. I'm just coming to realize that it may not exactly in the role we thought he would be

 

good job cherry picking stats to make AR look better. Is this a cope? He sucked, but he'll still get a nice contract. Get over it.

 

who needs to get over it?

 

So, yeah.
Seem to have struck a nerve here and even credible arguments are being discounted because of an opposing OPINION.
The disrespect is palpable and unwarranted.
Anyway, carry in with attacking the poster and have a fun filled, hateful day!

 

Please stop contributing to this site because my opinion doesn’t fall in line with yours?
Nah.
Try and come back with actual evidence next time. We have presented plenty.

 

Austin obviously is not as good as early/mid-20s Kyrie that was going blow for blow with Steph in the Finals, but I don't think its crazy to say he's in the same tier of player as Mavs Kyrie. Kyrie's advanced stats in from the 2024 regular season clear Austin's this year and last year, but his numbers from last year before he tore his ACL look pretty similar to Austin.

 

Hope they end this tonight.

I kind of want to move on from this season. Seems like this was always a gap year.