The Los Angeles Lakers have been one of the perplexing teams of the 2025-26 NBA season. While the upside has been undeniable for a team featuring LeBron James, Austin Reaves, and Luka Dončić, the bad has often turned into the ugly. Unfortunately for them, it’s been more of the latter recently.
Since the All-Star break, even with the roster mostly healthy, the record has been dreadful. Losing five of their last seven and back-to-back close games has dropped them to 34-24, just slightly ahead of the Phoenix Suns for the sixth seed in the Western Conference. However, their best player, Luka Dončić, isn’t ready to give up hope just yet.
Luka Dončić Still Has Hope for the Lakers
Starting the season 15-4, it looked like the new-look roster for the Lakers was going to work out after all. Even in a loaded Western Conference, they were right in the thick of things and keeping up with virtually every other team.
Since then, though, things have fallen into a tailspin. At 34-24, they have been a sub-.500 team in that stretch, with their recent losing ways highlighting almost all of their problems in even greater light.
Against the Suns, too, their worst habits came to the forefront. Even without Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks, they couldn’t put up an adequate defensive fight. Deandre Ayton was as disengaged as he has been all season long, finishing with just two points and a -24 plus/minus.
The offense, outside of Dončić (41), was nowhere to be found, as no other player crossed the 15-point mark. But the defense was just as bad, with their POA defenders repeatedly getting blown by, including on the game-winning three.
Grayson Allen easily blew past the Slovenian superstar, collapsing the entire Lakers squad into the paint, leading to a wide-open triple for Royce O’Neale to win the game. After the loss, their second in heartbreaking fashion, the five-time All-NBA selection was visibly disappointed.
However, sitting at the post-game press conference, he wasn’t willing to give up on the season just yet. Instead, he explained the simple mindset that could get them back on track.
“Just go game-by-game, try to win every game. Obviously, we didn’t start good [out of the All-Star break], but nothing is over. We just got to keep bringing the mindset of trying to win every game.”
Leading the league in scoring at 32.7 points, while adding 7.8 rebounds and 8.6 assists per game, he is a one-man engine for any squad. However, LA is going to have to get it together as a squad to make a deep postseason run.
