LOS ANGELES – Throughout the regular season, the Los Angeles Lakers have stressed the need to match other teams’ physicality from the opening tip. The Oklahoma City Thunder were in town on Monday night, and they’re among the most physical teams in the NBA. Although the Lakers lost to the Thunder, 119-110, Jake LaRavia believes the team did a good job overall in terms of matching the physicality.
Following the Lakers’ loss to the Thunder, Jake LaRavia spoke about how the team has made strides in the physicality department, and how despite the outcome, they were right in the mix against the best the team in the Western Conference.
“I think we’re much better than we were. This was a very winnable game 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 spot.”
During the course of the regular season, LaRavia has been one of the Lakers’ leaders in terms of effort, energy, toughness and physicality. It’s dual role he plays alongside Marcus Smart, his former teammate with the Memphis Grizzlies.
With LaRavia and Smart in the starting lineup, they’ve brought the effort and hustle that head coach JJ Redick has stressed the need for all season. They communicate defensively and they use their hands to get in the passing lanes and force deflections. They dive on the floor for loose balls. Smart in particular has taken the lead as far as stressing physicality with his popular saying, ‘the toughest team sets the rules.’
For him, the Thunder are good example of that saying ringing true.
“They’ve been working for a long time, and they’ve had success with it,” Smart said following the game. “Unfortunately in this game and this league, the toughest team sets the rules and that’s exactly what it is. So they can’t call it that all the time, but give credit to them. . .they’ve build a reputation for themselves and it helps. We got to be better at it, and we got to build our reputation.”
In addition to the physicality, the overall fight the Lakers showed against the potential championship favorites was something Smart believes was a decent measuring stick. The third quarter stretch aside, the Lakers essentially went toe to toe with the Thunder, while still taking into account the absence of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
“Obviously we have a little way to go, but we’re on the right track. Obviously you would like the outcome to be different, but the way we fought, our sense of urgency, all the way up to the last five minutes we were playing great basketball,” Smart said. “We’re in the right spot. We just got to clean up some things and we’ll be alright.”
