A balanced offensive performance and steely defensive display from the reigning NBA champions was enough to seal victory over the depleted Lakers, who started brightly but trailed for the final three quarters.
Chet Holmgren led the Thunder with 24 points and 12 rebounds while reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Ajay Mitchell added 18 points apiece.
“We were a little choppy, a little rusty, but offensively we just stuck with it,” Gilgeous-Alexander said, saluting a Thunder defence that restricted the Lakers to their lowest score in a playoff game since 2021.
“We just try to make people play outside their comfort zone, as simple as that,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of the Thunder defence.
“Whatever guys like to do, we like to take away from them.”
The commanding Thunder victory underscored the size of the task facing the fourth-seeded Lakers if they are to defy the odds and upset the champions in the best-of-seven series.
Oklahoma City completed a 4-0 regular-season sweep over the Lakers, winning each game by an average margin of 29.3 points.
Tuesday’s series-opener at Oklahoma City’s Paycom Center echoed the Thunder’s regular-season dominance, with the champions pulling away down the stretch to score an emphatic win.
James, who had defied his 41 years to lead the Lakers to a surprise 4-2 upset of the Houston Rockets in the first round, led Los Angeles with 27 points in a losing effort.
Rui Hachimura added 18 points with Marcus Smart bagging 12 and Deandre Ayton 10.
In Tuesday’s other playoff game, Cade Cunningham scored 23 points as the Detroit Pistons held off a second-half rally to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 111-101 in their NBA Eastern Conference semi-final series opener.
The top-seeded Pistons looked to be cruising to a comfortable win after dominating in the first half and taking a 17-point lead in the third period.
But a spirited Cleveland rally saw the Cavaliers close to within four points before Detroit finally pulled clear again in the fourth quarter.
Cunningham was one of six Detroit players to finish in double figures, with Tobias Harris adding 20 points while Duncan Robinson bagged five three-pointers on his way to a 19-point haul at the Pistons’ Little Caesars Arena. (AFP)