LAS VEGAS — With a little more than seven minutes remaining in the third quarter, Oklahoma City Thunder lottery rookie center Aday Mara had just rebounded his own miss and thought he had an easy assist to forward Brooks Barnhizer under the rim. Mara fired off a pass from the post intended for Barnhizer, but unbeknownst to Mara, Los Angeles Lakers power forward Adou Thiero was still in the paint.Thiero alertly lifted his hands, collected a steal and the Lakers cashed in on points off the turnover with a made 3-pointer by center Anton Watson on the ensuing possession.On the next Lakers possession, Thiero had the ball with Mara guarding him in the corner as the shot clock was expiring. Thiero angled himself into the paint with a drive after a side screen from point guard William Hickey, drawing a switch from Thunder forward Buddy Boeheim while Mara instinctively sunk into the paint. Thiero spun back toward the rim to lose Boeheim, and as he felt Mara under the basket, Thiero whipped a pass to Hickey in the corner for an open 3-pointer that forced a Thunder timeout.“I was just trying to go out there and cause havoc,” said Thiero, who was the 36th pick of the 2025 NBA Draft. “JJ, he says the things he wants: be the point of attack, on-ball defender and everything. So just trying to go out there and be that, try and get the reps and defending. And offensively, just trying to play basketball. Trying to make the game more simple for myself.”Thiero was impactful across the board, finishing with a game-high 20 points on 8-of-14 field goals while adding four assists, three steals and two blocks in a game-high 30:08 as the Lakers comfortably beat the Thunder 96-84 in what was both teams’ opening game in Las Vegas. When Thiero was off the floor for 9:52, the Lakers were outscored by one point; the Lakers outscored the Thunder when any other player was on the bench.Notably, Thiero had no turnovers while adding an offensive rebound. Thiero didn’t just make plays; he played in a way that the Lakers managed to win the possession battle despite being outrebounded. The Lakers had 13 turnovers to the Thunder’s 20. If Thiero can consistently get offensive rebounds and steals while limiting turnovers, he could earn minutes for head coach JJ Redick, who trusted Thiero enough to place him in the rotation toward the end of the Thunder’s sweep of the Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals.A measurement of the possession battle is the combined margin of offensive rebounds and opponent turnovers. The Lakers forced 10 more turnovers than their opponents last season, but gave up 119 more offensive rebounds than they totaled. That negative 109-possession differential (-1.3 per game) ranked 23rd in the NBA. Among playoff teams, only the Denver Nuggets (-2.6 possession differential per game) ranked worse at 26th in the league. The champion New York Knicks ranked second in the NBA in possession battle differential at 3.4 per game, second only to a 60-win Detroit Pistons team (3.6 per game) that swept the Knicks 3-0 during the regular season.