Getty

LeBron James on Luka Doncic injury and Lakers’ future

I

It has officially come to the worst for the Los Angeles Lakers. They are now in a 0-3 blackhole.

The end of their season is hanging over them like a thick, fluffy cloud. It’s dim, growing darker and darker. 

The looks on the Lakers bench said it all as the final minutes of Saturday’s Game 3 ticked off the clock. This was their one and only chance to make this series intriguing.

Instead, they lost in similar fashion to Games 1 and 2 — but worse. 

Los Angeles was smacked, kicked around and laughed in the third quarter. Again. 

The Oklahoma City Thunder, glistening with nonstop fresh bodies off the bench, turned it on after halftime, tightening up their defense some more and knocked down what felt like a bunch of daggers. Again.

The Lakers, simply too old, not fast or mobile enough and far too few bodies to compete with the champs, succumbed to the intense pressure. Again.

Oklahoma City blew the doors of the Lakers. Again.

Now the Lakers, perhaps some of them already having their minds on vacation, have to do something no team in NBA history has done if they have any interest in coming back and winning this series.

History is Screaming. The Los Angeles Lakes are Done

The Thunder and Lakers emptied their benches in the final minutes of Game 3. Oklahoma City’s lead grew too well in the 20s before it went on to win another game in blowout fashion.

Well, whoopty doo.

The Thunder’s average margin of victory against the Lakers was already roughly 29 points entering this series. The Lakers were likely going to go without their best player, Luka Doncic, the entire series. Oklahoma City is up 3-0 and doesn’t appear to have broken a real sweat in any of the three games.

But is anyone surprised?

Lakers Nation is prideful, passionate and believes its team can take on anyone in the postseason. Some — or a lot — of that has to do with the Lakers’ gilded playoff history. So, fans are thinking, well, “We are the purple and gold, baby! April, May and June is where we dominate.”

Boy, do thoughts like that really disorient their reality. 

The fact of the matter is the Lakers weren’t supposed to be even competitive in this series. The Thunder are the defending NBA champions who are even better than they were a year ago.

So, that kid Ajay Mitchell? Were most in the NBA world familiar with him just 10 days ago? 

What about Cason Wallace and Jared McCain? 

Oh, and has anyone observed the offense and defensive leap first-time All-Star Chet Holmgren made from last season? Holmgren, by the way, had much of his 2024-25 season taken away due to a fractured hip.

And that guy sitting in dapper street clothes on the bench? Who was one of just two players to make the All-NBA and All-Defensive teams last season? Yeah, he hasn’t played in like three weeks. 

Holmgren was coming off a fractured hip. Jalen Williams played the entire 2025 playoff with a torn ligament in his wrist. 

The Thunder still won the championship.

And now they have more depth and players more developed from a year ago.

The Lakers were not supposed to be competitive in this series, let alone somehow win this best-of-seven. And to make things even worse, they are now down 0-3.

And to make things even more worse, teams trailing 0-3 in a series are 0-161 all time, according to LandofBasketball.com. That’s the brutal, unshakeable reality the Lakers are staring at.

Time to Look Forward

The Lakers’ season, for all intents and purposes, was washed away on an early April night in Oklahoma City, where Doncic incurred a Grade 2 hamstring and, as he recently revealed, was subsequently informed he would miss eight weeks. 

GettyThe Los Angeles Lakers look on from the bench during overtime of the game against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center on April 24, 2026 in Houston, Texas.

Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. 

Maybe the Lakers would have finished as the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference and have faced the Thunder in the second round anyway.

But it’ll pain the Lakers for a while to think how their season could’ve gone had Doncic not pulled up lame in a game just two weeks away from the start of the playoffs. 

The Lakers have one more game to play. It will be hard just to muster up the spirit and energy to play. But they must go out on somewhat of a high note by pushing the Thunder in Game 4.