Lakers have Shai Gilgeous-Alexander under control. It's the third quarters that get them

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James was quick to note that his team was trailing in the series despite anything else. “This ain’t Shai versus the Lakers,” James said. “It’s Lakers versus Thunder.” If this was Shai versus the Lakers, the Lakers might be doing all right. Gilgeous-Alexander hasn’t played to his standards all series, particularly in opening quarters. In Game 1, Gilgeous-Alexander had two of his season-high seven turnovers in the first quarter. In Game 2, he had two of his four personal fouls in the first frame and was held to just over 18 minutes played through the first three quarters. And in Saturday night’s 131-108 Game 3 win, Gilgeous-Alexander made only one of his seven field goal attempts in the first quarter, part of going 7-for-20 shooting. “Obviously haven’t been my best performances,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after glancing at the stat sheet. His 23 points marked the first time he has been held below 25 points in three straight playoff games since his first postseason with the Thunder in 2020. Turnovers. Fouls. Bricks. The Lakers have kept Gilgeous-Alexander from taking over the game. But the smoke portion of their smoke-and-mirrors defense has been more like smog as the games go on, with the third quarter devastating the Lakers each time. In Game 1, the Lakers trailed 69-65 with 6:40 to play in the third quarter after trailing by eight at halftime. Then the Thunder went on a timeout-inducing 7-0 run, capped by a Cason Wallace pick-six of Austin Reaves, and ended the quarter with a 4-point play from Ajay Mitchell. The Thunder led by double digits for the entire fourth quarter. In Game 2, the Lakers led at halftime then saw Gilgeous-Alexander benched for the last 10:34 of the third quarter after a flagrant foul drawn by Reaves, who hit free throws that extended their lead to 66-61. Then the Thunder outscored the Lakers by 18 points for the rest of the quarter, which was also their final margin of victory. In Game 3, the Lakers had another halftime lead, this time at home. Oklahoma City had lost four of its last six Game 3s, all on the road. But an 11-0 run game gave the Thunder a double-digit lead, and after the Lakers cut it to 84-79 with a minute left in the third quarter, Isaiah Joe made back-to-back 3s to put the Thunder up 90-79. “The MVP is 18, 22, 7-of-20 tonight,” said coach JJ Redick after his Lakers were pushed to the brink of elimination. “And they’ve kicked our ass three straight games. They’re an incredible basketball team.” The Lakers have given themselves a chance. They have overplayed Gilgeous-Alexander, just as they defended Kevin Durant in the lone game he played for the Houston Rockets in the first round. But while Durant called out the Lakers as “not a very great defensive team” in March, then absorbed a nine-turnover outing in his only appearance against them last month, the Thunder have grown more and more comfortable with the Lakers defense. They have gone from scoring 108 points in Game 1 to 125 points in Game 2 to a whopping 131 points in Game 3, the most allowed by the Lakers in a home playoff game since the 1985 Denver Nuggets scored 136 points at The Forum in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. Chet Holmgren, the Thunder’s other All-Star, led them in scoring in Game 1 and has the most points and field goals of any Thunder player in this series. Jared McCain nearly outscored the Lakers bench by himself in the first two games. Mitchell, who has made more field goals in this series than Gilgeous-Alexander, on Saturday became the fourth player this postseason to have at least 10 field goals made and 10 assists each in a game. While the Lakers have outscored the Thunder 96-86 in three second quarters and have had halftime leads in the last two games, they’ve been buried after that. In the three third quarters of this series, the Thunder have outscored the Lakers 92-61 and made 55.2 percent of their shots, while the Lakers are at 37.1 percent. In Game 3, the Thunder outscored the Lakers 33-20 in the third quarter while shooting 59.1 percent. Los Angeles, by comparison, only shot 36.4 percent. “We didn’t have the energy, the effort, you know, and they put a 30-plus point quarter on us,” James said Saturday night. “Kind of took care of the game right there, honestly. We had moments, obviously in the first half, that was really good. We did a good job of sharing the ball and knocking down shots. In that third quarter, we didn’t knock down shots, we didn’t defend or get stops, I would say. We defended, we didn’t get stops. And it allowed them to kind of take control of the game.” When the Lakers turn the ball over, they’re cooked. That was the case all regular season. When they cleaned that in March, they were able to punish teams with a lethal combination of shotmaking and free-throw generation. But the problem returned in Game 3, with the Thunder outscoring the Lakers 30-11. In the third quarter, it was 14-0. The Thunder ran off a critical 11-0 spurt in the third quarter Saturday that included two steals that led to buckets. Both were by Mitchell against Reaves. With 7:44 left in the third quarter, Reaves drove into the paint with Mitchell defending and left his feet, only to be surprised by Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein. Reaves tried to find Los Angeles center Deandre Ayton in the paint, but Mitchell easily batted the bad pass away, allowing Holmgren to secure the loose ball. Mitchell then drove around Reaves easily on the other end of the floor to force a timeout. Reaves and James then ran a pick-and-roll at the top of the key, with James rolling into a post-up at the nail as Wallace switched off him and onto Reaves. Mitchell wasn’t completely sealed by James, and Reaves lofted a soft pass into the air that Mitchell stole and ran back for an immediate score. Reaves had as many turnovers (a game-high five) as field goals (5-of-13) in Game 3, three of them steals in the third quarter that led to points. “They still scored 30 points off those turnovers,” Redick said. “We had (six) of them in the third. I think all of them actually led to them getting fast break, transition baskets.” “I thought we played really good in the first half,” Reaves said. “Even a little bit in the third quarter — it’s kind of been the trend the last couple of games. Just got to figure out how to take that first half and move it to the second.” The Lakers are down to their final chance. Oklahoma City is 7-0 against the Lakers this season, and only one of those games, in which Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t play, required clutch time. If Los Angeles is going to avoid a sweep and get itself back to Oklahoma City, it could start with its work on Gilgeous-Alexander — but it will require better ball control in the third quarter as well. “I’m not angry or disappointed,” James said. “Obviously, you’re disappointed. It still affects you being down 3-0, obviously. But I mean, we’ve still got life and that’s all you can ask for. I got to be much better on Monday.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms