Last NBA season was a rough one for Los Angeles Lakers fans. The team got knocked out in the first round by the Minnesota Timberwolves, and nobody saw it coming the way it happened. This season, however, things look different as the Lakers are going strong and currently have a 50-27 record.
But just when fans started believing again, two major injuries hit the team back-to-back. A former NBA champion has stepped in to predict exactly how this will end.
Kendrick Perkins Predicts a First-Round Exit for the Lakers
A post on X is going viral. It shows that the Lakers’ odds to make the Finals on PolyMarket are at an all-time low after losing Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves. Former NBA champion Kendrick Perkins reposted that update, and he believes the Lakers are headed for a first-round exit in the playoffs.
First Round Exit!!! https://t.co/Gq2UkaoEnr
— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) April 5, 2026
This prediction from Perkins came right after it was officially announced that both Dončić and Reaves are out for the rest of the regular season.
Dončić suffered a Grade 2 left hamstring injury, and the update came following an MRI after the Lakers’ loss to Oklahoma City on April 2. A Grade 2 hamstring strain is not something you rush back from. With the regular season winding down, it looks like he won’t be back until the playoffs at the earliest, if at all.
Losing Dončić is unfortunate for this team. He has been the leading scorer in the NBA this season, averaging 33.5 points per game. He also sits fourth in the league in assists at 8.3 per game and is ranked second in 3-pointers made.
He brings a kind of playmaking and shot creation that nobody else on the roster can replicate. There is no one on the current roster who can step up and fill that gap.
Even after the Dončić news broke, Lakers fans were still holding on to some hope as LeBron James and Reaves were still there. But then the second blow landed.
On Saturday, the Lakers announced that Reaves is also done for the rest of the regular season as he was diagnosed with a Grade 2 left oblique muscle injury. Reaves was averaging 23.3 points per game this season, so losing him alongside Dončić essentially strips this team of two of its three top scorers overnight.
So now the team is left leaning almost entirely on James. Nobody is going to question the King as he is still averaging 20.6 points per game. But there is a limit to how much one player can carry, especially at age 41.
He will give everything he has, no doubt about that. But expecting him to drag this team deep into the playoffs on his own is a lot to hope for.
Perkins didn’t stop at just one prediction. Just a day earlier, during a segment on “First Take,” he said the Lakers might reach the second round at best before getting eliminated.
“When I look at the Lakers, they’re a 2nd round exit, that’s their ceiling… The Lakers don’t scare a soul. Even on Halloween… Last night showed me if you’re the Lakers, you cannot invest all your money into Austin Reaves and Luka Dončić as your two franchise guys going forward if you’re expecting to win a championship,” Perkins said.
The situation looks tough for the Lakers.
