Howdy, I’m your host, Iliana Limón Romero, filling in for Houston Mitchell, who is probably spending his vacation sorting through email from anxious Dodger fans. Let’s get right to the news.
From Dan Woike: The Lakers had equity, earning it in a dominant win Sunday afternoon against the best team in the West.
They had reasons to punt on Tuesday’s rematch with the Oklahoma City Thunder, namely a game on Wednesday in Dallas and a schedule that demanded they win just two more times to secure the third seed in their conference, putting them in strong position for a deep playoff run.
And Monday, when they issued an injury report with the bulk of their rotation listed as “questionable,” it sure seemed like the Lakers were going to let big-picture thinking get in the way of the game in front of them.
But the message from JJ Redick was clear.
“We can control whether or not we get the [No. 3] seed and we’ve got four chances to get two wins,” the Lakers coach said before Tuesday’s game. “I’d like to win them all. So yeah, that’s the thought.”
The Lakers played hard, they played with passion. They made mistakes and turned the ball over but they fought. They and the Thunder delivered on the kind of big-game intensity you’d want when two of the NBA’s top teams meet in April.
And then Luka Doncic got ejected.
“It was a great game. It was a great game that unfortunately didn’t get to finish out the way that I think every basketball fan would want because of some decision making on some...
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