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The Los Angeles Lakers never stopped to battling back on the road in Oklahoma City, but Russell Westbrook’s triple-double helped push the Thunder to 3-0 on the season with a 113-96 victory on Sunday.
Westbrook stuffed the stat sheet en route to his second consecutive triple-double with 33 points, 16 assists and 12 rebounds. The combination of Westbrook and a bevy of missed open shots by the Lakers was simply too much to overcome, though Los Angeles was able to keep making runs to keep the game close. The Lakers trimmed the deficit down to four with 4:44 to play, but the Thunder responded with a 18-5 run to put the game away.
Despite providing their worst showing of the young season with 21 turnovers and 40.2 percent shooting, the Lakers kept the game competitive. D’Angelo Russell led the way with 20 points, five assists and five rebounds while Nick Young chipped in 16 points of his own, but Julius Randle was the top performer for the Lakers on Sunday. Randle hit seven of his 10 shot attempts, scoring 20 points and grabbing nine rebounds.
The Lakers fall to 1-2 on the young season, with both losses coming on the road. The team has been very resilient, managing to keep the wheels from falling off when they have fallen behind, a trend that is obviously different from a year ago. But with such a young team comes the growing pains that fans have seen in the two losses.
Another road test awaits the Lakers on Tuesday when they travel to Indiana to take on Paul George and the Pacers, as they attempt to tally their first road victory of the season.