3 ways Lakers and Rockets exposed blueprint to beat #1 seed Oklahoma City Thunder

The Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers defeated the league-leading Oklahoma City Thunder in back-to-back games.

3 ways Lakers and Rockets exposed blueprint to beat #1 seed Oklahoma City Thunder

Oklahoma City Thunder endured losses to Lakers and Rockets

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his Oklahoma City Thunder have been the league’s best team for quite a while. A combination of his MVP level play along with the total team offense and their relentless effort on defense have helped them climb to the top of the ladder.

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The Thunder have not lost more than four games in any given month this season. In March, they put together an impressive 15-1 record, winning games against top playoff contenders. Some felt the team was good enough to win the franchise’s first NBA title.

During that time, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander further cemented his MVP credentials overtaking Nikola Jokic who briefly led the race. It all seemed as if the rest of the league were giving up on the idea of trying to win against them and concentrated on the rest of the standings.

Meanwhile, the Houston Rockets welcomed the Thunder to their house and defeated them by double digits. Earlier today, the Los Angeles Lakers went into the Thunder’s house and blew them away by 27 points. Suddenly, these two teams gave the rest of the league a blueprint on how to defeat the Thunder.

Avoid fouling Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander might be a serious candidate to win the MVP. But there have been countless times when fans have pointed out that the Canadian resorts to a lot of free throws. He knows how to bait opposition players as well as the officials.

That came to the attention of rival coaches and one by one they started to talk about this problem. Coaches felt he was becoming untouchable and voiced that this was becoming unacceptable. The Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers also took note, but waited for the right opportunity.

Most of the time, teams bring out such plans in the playoffs. They do not want to reveal their hand and wait to unleash it at the right moment. But since both the Rockets and Lakers are battling to stay ahead of the rest, they had to utilize this gameplan.

The plan is simple, do not foul Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. It might sound simple, but it is very difficult and needs a defender to be aware of his surroundings to be able to pull it off. Amen Thompson along with his Rockets teammates managed to do that and so did the and the Lakers as a collective group.

The Rockets allowed two free throws while the Lakers did not even allow one. That is a massive difference from the twelve trips attempts he received in their last win against the Detroit Pistons. But to do this, one has to be that good at defense.

Being physical without being physical

While Shai Gilgeous-Alexander commands the attention of officials, his other teammates generally do not get a similar number of foul calls. What that does is that it gives an opposing team the opportunity to close them down.

It is not necessarily a close down in terms of avoiding scoring opportunities. Rather, it is a throwback to 90s style basketball where players used to let their opponents know that they can be roughed up if needed. A push here, a shove there, or a hand on the back is all that is needed to set the tone.

The Houston Rockets are exceptional at this considering head coach Ime Udoka preaches this style of basketball. On the other hand, the Los Angeles Lakers employ this a bit differently, where they choose finesse to help alter shots.

This works on the psychology of a player and can have a disastrous impact on efficiency. A player can even stop resorting to plays they usually have no problem executing. But in the event they did start to score efficiently, both teams brought out another trick to slow the Oklahoma City Thunder down.

Bleed the Oklahoma City Thunder’s shot clock

Another tactic the Los Angeles Lakers and the Houston Rockets employed was to drain the shot clock. Not on their side, rather close down Oklahoma City Thunder players so that they do not get an easy shot at the basket.

The Rockets used their athleticism to enforce that, whereas the Lakers used their experience and intelligence. Two contrasting methods, but the result was the same. The Rockets’ athleticism helped them notch statistics to prove their efforts, whereas the Lakers’ efforts did not show on the stat sheet, but the end result did.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren were stopped multiple times from exploding for an easy bucket. Instead, they had to stop, either pass it to a teammate, or rethink their plan of attack. This instantly slows the game down in a manner that is usual in the playoffs.

Anyone who ends up playing the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round could use these tactics. Two teams have proved it can work. If an eight seed team has good enough defenders to execute this plan, they might end up providing the upset of the season.