![\"Marcus](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-120835154.jpg\")
The Lakers fight for an offensive rebound during their loss to the Thunder on Feb. 9. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\nLOS ANGELES \u2014 Lakers coach JJ Redick warned his team about the dangers of turning the ball over against the reigning NBA champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After struggling with ball security for half of Monday night\u2019s matchup at\u00a0Crypto.com\u00a0Arena, the Lakers cleaned things up.<\/p>\n
But what the Lakers struggled with throughout was securing defensive rebounds against a Thunder team that thrives with capitalizing on any margins provided to them, leading to the Lakers falling to the Thunder 119-110 on the first night of their home back-to-back set.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After struggling to take care of the ball, turning the ball 10 times for 20 Oklahoma City points that helped the Thunder take a game-best 14-point lead in the second quarter, the Lakers only turned the ball over five times in the second half for three Oklahoma City points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the Lakers didn\u2019t overcome the Thunder widening their margins on the offensive glass, with Oklahoma City scoring 24 second-chance points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
LeBron James led the Lakers with 22 points, 10 assists and six rebounds, his third consecutive game with a points-assists double-double.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Lakers fight for an offensive rebound during their loss to the Thunder on Feb. 9. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Marcus Smart scored 19 points, while Austin Reaves had 16 points and seven assists off of the bench.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What it means<\/p>\n
The Lakers dropped to 32-20 in the loss, staying at the No. 5 spot in the Western Conference standings after having a chance to move up to No. 4.<\/p>\n
Their three-game winning streak also ended.<\/p>\n
The Lakers haven\u2019t won more than three games in a row since late November.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Turning point<\/p>\n
When Cason Wallace grabbed the offensive rebound at the 5:04 mark in the fourth quarter that led to a Jalen Williams layup to put the Thunder up 102-99 with just over five minutes left.<\/p>\n
Up to that point in the game, the Lakers and Thunder were looking to create separation after both teams went on runs to create significant leads.<\/p>\n
![\"LeBron](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/defends-oklahoma-city-thunder-guard-120840018.jpg\")
Cason Wallace looks to move the ball during the Thunder\u2019s win over the Lakers on Feb. 9. AP<\/p>\n
But the Thunder\u2019s advantage on the glass in that moment encapsulated a night-long trend of Oklahoma City winning around the margins.<\/p>\n
The Lakers didn\u2019t have another for the remainder of the game, trailing by at least three points for the final five minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MVP: Isaiah Joe<\/p>\n
During a game in which both teams were missing their MVP candidates, the result was going to come down to which role players were going to step up.<\/p>\n
Joe did that for the Thunder early with his 3-point shooting and cuts to the basket, helping the Thunder take a 31-30 lead after the first quarter and a 67-58 lead going into halftime.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He scored nine points, all 3-pointers, in the first quarter and seven in the second. He finished the game with 19 points on 6-of-13 shooting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stat of the game: 10<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how many more second-chance points the Thunder scored than the Lakers, having a 24-14 advantage for the game.<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City grabbed five more offensive rebounds than the Lakers, and were more successful with making those extra scoring opportunities count.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
The Lakers will close out their back-to-back set when they host the Spurs on Tuesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Spurs, who are No. 2 in the West standings, are on a four-game winning streak and have won nine of their last 12 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Lakers coach JJ Redick warned his team about the dangers of turning the ball over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[7,1331,150,6,310,475,179,3966,3965,66,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-594637","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-j-j-redick","10":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-oklahoma","13":"tag-oklahoma-city","14":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","15":"tag-oklahomacity","16":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116046689736620736","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}