Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 18 points in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of a Western Conference semifinals series Tuesday in Oklahoma City. Photo by Gerald Leong/EPA
May 6 (UPI) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander totaled seven turnovers as the Oklahoma City Thunder overcame errors to beat the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinals series.
Gilgeous-Alexander, whose turnover total surpassed his 2025-26 regular-season and playoff highs, recorded 18 points and six assists in the 108-90 triumph Tuesday in Oklahoma City.
“I thought, collectively, we could have been better,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault told reporters. “It obviously wasn’t clean. It was a little clunky.
“I felt we were a little fast to begin the game anyways. … I told the team ‘you can’t be greedy with a playoff win that was not a perfect game. There’s a lot of playoff games that are not perfect.
“The other team’s trying their best to squeeze you and make you very uncomfortable.’ And so we won an imperfect game, and that’s a good thing.”
Daigneault cited the Thunder’s eight-day layoff between games. Tuesday’s matchup was their first contest since a 131-122 win over the Phoenix Suns in Game 4 of a first-round series sweep April 27 in Phoenix.
The Thunder averaged just 12.6 turnovers per game in the regular season, the fewest in the Western Conference. They also averaged a Western Conference-low 11.8 turnovers this postseason. They logged 14 in Tuesday’s win.
“I was loose with the ball, had a lot of turnovers,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I think that comes to the rust and not playing for a little bit. They’re obviously very aggressive, but I feel like for most of the night we got great looks.
“Sometimes they didn’t go down. We got great looks, I felt like.”
The Thunder outshot the Lakers 49.4% to 41.2%, including a 43.3% to 33.3% edge from 3-point range. They outscored the Lakers 48-40 in the paint, 16-11 off fast breaks and 34-15 off the bench. They led by as many as 21 points in the matchup, which had five lead changes.
Lakers forward LeBron James scored a game-high 27 points. Center Deandre Ayton totaled 10 points and 12 rebounds. Forward Rui Hachimura chipped in 18 points.
Thunder forward Chet Holmgren registered 24 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks. Guard Ajay Mitchell scored 18 points in the victory.
The Thunder will host the Lakers in Game 2 at 9:30 p.m. EDT Thursday in Oklahoma City. Game 3 of the best-of-seven game series will be Saturday in Los Angeles.
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