LeBron, Lakers still searching for full 48 minutes as series shifts home

The Lakers are down 2-0. The feeling is they are closer than it looks.

Los Angeles dropped both games in Oklahoma City, including a LeBron, Lakers still searching for full 48 minutes as series shifts home, and now heads home needing a response. LeBron James said the effort has been there. The consistency has not.

“We played well in spurts,” James said, via SB Nation. “I thought we had some pretty good minutes… We were able to take a five-point lead in the third quarter and then they made a run. That fourth quarter, they kept scoring.”

That has been the theme.

The Lakers have had stretches where their game plan works. They have defended, created looks and even controlled parts of the game. They just have not been able to sustain it.

Turnovers were a concern entering the series. They still are, but James did not point to them as the deciding factor in Game 2.

“I don’t know. We’ve had opportunities,” he said. “Offensively, we’ve had some really good looks. Some of them haven’t gone down. … Some of them were being aggressive, and we’re OK with that.”

Where James did point was the glass.

“I think tonight we did a good job with our first defense,” he said. “But we gotta clean glass and do a better job with that. … You can’t give up second-chance points.”

That is where Oklahoma City has made its push.

The Thunder have not dominated the offensive rebounding numbers, but they have made those chances count. Extra possessions have turned into points. Momentum has followed.

“Yeah, they can be (deflating),” James said of second-chance buckets.

Now it shifts to Los Angeles. The Lakers are not out of it. But without Luka Doncic, the margin is thin. The path forward is clear.

Fewer empty possessions. More control of the glass. And, as James put it, a full 48 minutes.

They have shown it in pieces. Now they need all of it.