Dennis Schroder scored 22 of his 26 points in the second half and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 123-117 on Wednesday night.
Schroder went down holding his left ankle in the first quarter but stayed in the game. He turned out to be fine, making 8 of 18 shots and finishing with six assists to help the Lakers overcome their injury issues. LeBron James and Anthony Davis both were out with right foot injuries and D’Angelo Russell sat out because of a sprained right ankle, yet the Lakers won for the fourth time in five games.
Troy Brown Jr. scored a season-high 19 points and Austin Reaves added 19 for the Lakers.
Reaves said his role was much different without the Lakers’ stars.
“Anytime you play without your three most of all dominant guys that you run mostly everything through, the game’s going to be — I won’t say awkward, but there’s just a lot of new situations for guys and especially myself,” he said.
Jalen Williams scored 24 points, Josh Giddey had 22 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds and Lu Dort added 19 points for the Thunder.
Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who averages 31 points, sat out due to health and safety protocols and an abdominal strain. Oklahoma City is 0-5 since the All-Star break.
Even with the Thunder missing Gilgeous-Alexander, the Lakers were focused.
“They’ve got a lot of talent there, a lot of young talent that knows how to play the game and plays hard,” Reaves said. “They’re not a bad team at all. But we needed this win and we knew that coming in.”
The Thunder led 60-57 at halftime behind 12 points each from Dort and Giddey.
The Lakers opened the second half on a 10-2 run to take a 67-62 lead. They took a 90-84 edge into the fourth, then took a 13-point lead in the final period before holding on.
“For the most part, I thought we played really hard for much of the game,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “Bounced back a couple of times, like, weathered a couple of runs and just kind of kept ourselves in it. Playing from behind like that down the stretch is tough to evaluate, but I was just impressed by the compete level of the team tonight.”