Thousand-yard stares filled their bench. Austin Reaves couldn’t believe what transpired. It’s one thing to lose; it’s another to get absolutely demolished at comedic levels on a national stage.
The Oklahoma City Thunder humiliated the Los Angeles Lakers in a 121-92 win. The reigning NBA champion showed the NBA world there are levels to this whole contention business. The second half resembled a Harlem Globetrotters show than an actual regular-season contest.
Anybody hoping to see Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic duel it out in the head-to-head NBA superstar matchup only enjoyed the first few possessions of the game. That was before the Thunder absolutely ran away on the scoreboard and nearly doubled them at halftime.
After enjoying a breakout season, Reaves was slapped back to reality. He was held to 13 points on 4-of-12 shooting and five rebounds. Talking afterward, he summed up the game in a pretty transparent way.
“Just motivation. They did what they wanted to do. Just to be blunt, they beat the s–t out of us tonight,” Reaves said. “There’s a lot of basketball to be played. We feel we can get to that level. Just tonight wasn’t anywhere close to that. We do feel like we can get there. We have the pieces to get there.”
Through 13 games, the Thunder look every bit the part of a team vying to go back-to-back. They have a better record and net rating at this juncture of the season compared to last year’s historic 68-14 campaign that saw them set the NBA record for largest point differential.
Oh, and by the way, they’re doing all this without Jalen Williams. You know, OKC’s other All-NBA player?
Look, it’s still incredibly early in the 2025-26 regular season. A lot can and will change. But there’s no denying that the Thunder have shown you why they were the heavy favorite to repeat as NBA champions. And it’s tough to believe a 40-year-old LeBron James will make that huge of a difference.