Former NBA player Theo Pinson seemed to suggest that the Los Angeles Lakers indirectly played a role in the San Antonio Spurs beating the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals.
The Lakers deployed an interesting strategy against the Thunder, doing all they could to force the ball out of MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s hands.
While Los Angeles was swept in the series, Pinson believes the Lakers’ defensive scheme gave the Spurs the “blueprint” in the Western Conference Finals.
“I told y’all before it happened: The Los Angeles Lakers gave the blueprint,” Pinson said while reacting to the Spurs’ ability to slow down the MVP and win the series. “They (the Lakers) just didn’t have enough talent. Shai didn’t play well in that series. Go look at it. He did not play well in that series. They just had a better team.”
Against the Lakers, Gilgeous-Alexander scored under 25 points in three of the four games and finished the series averaging 24.5 points per game while shooting 47.1 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from 3.
For comparison, the two-time league MVP averaged 31.1 points, 4.3 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game in the regular season, shooting 55.3 percent from the field and 38.6 percent from 3. So, the Lakers held him to nearly seven fewer points than his season average while also forcing him to shoot much worse from the field.
The Spurs have a lot of solid defenders on their roster – led by Defensive Player of the Year Victor Wembanyama – and they made things even tougher on Gilgeous-Alexander in the Western Conference Finals. San Antonio was also aided by Thunder guard Ajay Mitchell (who crushed the Lakers in the second round) going down with a calf injury early in the series.
The Spurs held Gilgeous-Alexander to 25.9 points per game across seven games in the Western Conference Finals, and the 27-year-old shot just 40.9 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from 3.
Lakers head coach J.J. Redick clearly had a solid plan for slowing down Gilgeous-Alexander, and Pinson isn’t the only former NBA player to give the Lakers credit. In fact, it’s becoming a somewhat popular take.
Hopefully, Los Angeles will be able to improve its personnel to beat the Thunder in a playoff run in the near future.
