Silver lining despite LA’s loss against the Thunder

LOS ANGELES – Throughout the regular season, Los Angeles Lakers have emphasized the need to match the physical abilities of other teams from the top. The Oklahoma City Thunder were in town on Monday night, and they are among the most physical teams in the NBA. Although it is The Lakers lost to the Thunder119-110, Jake LaRavia believes the team as a whole did a good job in terms of physical alignment.

After the Lakers’ loss to the Thunder, Jake LaRavia talked about how the team has made strides in the physical department and how despite the outcome, they were right in the mix against the best team in the Western Conference.

“I think we’re a lot better than we were. This was a big win for us,” LaRavia said. “Obviously they had that run in the third quarter and we just weren’t able to capitalize down the stretch. But we’re definitely in a good place.”

During the regular season, LaRavia was one of the Lakers’ leaders in effort, energy, toughness and physicality. That’s it the dual role he plays alongside Marcus Smarthis former teammate with the Memphis Grizzlies.

With LaRavia and Smart in the starting lineup, they are brought effort and hustle that head coach JJ Redick emphasized the need for the entire season. They communicate defensively and use their hands to enter passing lanes and force swerves. He dives to the floor for loose balls. Smart especially took the lead when it came to emphasizing physical condition with his popular saying, ‘the toughest team makes the rules.’

For him, the Groms are a good example that the saying is true.

“They’ve been working for a long time and they’ve had success doing it,” Smart said after the game. “Unfortunately in this game and this league, the toughest team makes the rules and that’s exactly what it is. So they can’t call it all the time, but give them credit … they’ve built a reputation for themselves and that helps. We’ve got to be better at that and we’ve got to build our reputation.”

In addition to the physicality, the overall fight the Lakers showed against potential championship favorites was something Smart believes is a decent measuring stick. If we consider the third quarter, the Lakers essentially went toe-to-toe with the Thunder while still dealing with the absence of Shai Giljus-Alexander.

“Obviously we still have a little way to go, but we’re on the right track. Obviously, you’d like the outcome to be different, but the way we fought, our sense of urgency, until the last five minutes, we played great basketball,” Smart said. “We’re in the right place. We just have to clean some things up and we’ll be fine.”