With the NBA playoffs approaching, the La Lakers made a strong statement by tearing down the Oklahoma City Thunder’s best record.

Luka Doncic scored 30 points and the Los Angeles Lakers made a devastating long-range shot, earning a surprising 126-99 blowout in the No. 1 Oklahoma City Thunder.

Western Conference leaders effectively settled in the first half with the Lakers, third, and Los Angeles held a heavyweight showdown with 15 three-pointers (a franchise record) at the end of the second quarter with a 78-56 lead.

The Lakers never seemed to surrender as they ended a comfortable victory to silence the Oklahoma City family crowd.

The victory brought the Lakers’ edge closer to one of the four remaining automatic playoff attractions in the West after already cooperating with Oklahoma City and Houston.

The Lakers lost 22 three-pointers throughout the game, and Don Sici was responsible for five of them. Austin Reaves had four 3-pointers in 20 points, while LeBron James scored 19 points.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 26 points for The Thunder with 26 points in Oklahoma City, with the Thunder shooting just 43% from the field and only 37 3-pointers.

James said the Lakers were determined not to relax after a quick start with the Western Conference leaders.

“Between them and Cleveland, they’re the best team in the NBA,” James said. “They’re the No. 1 team in the West, so you can’t let it go no matter how much the score is – they always push the push. That’s why they’re in this part of the season.

“So it was a very good win for us and we could build it…we just wanted to immediately develop our habits and go into the final year of the year.”

Reaves believes that the result was well performed in the conclusion drawn on April 13 in the last week of the regular season.

Six teams compete for four playoff spots in the Western Conference, from the third-ranked Lakers (48-30) to the eighth-ranked Memphis Grizzlies (46-32).

“It’s big,” Reeves said. “The way you can go from third to eighth in the snapshot of your finger. So for us, it’s as good as we did tonight. Hopefully we can build on that momentum.”

The team will meet again in Oklahoma City on Tuesday.

The Thunder scored less than 100 points for the first time since November 15.