The 2025-26 Los Angeles Lakers are an elite company right now, and history tells us that this elite company isn’t that great.
Entering the All-Star break, despite having a 33-21 record, the Lakers trailed by one point, which is not normal at all. In fact, LA is just the third team in NBA history with a 60% or better winning percentage and a negative point differential at the All-Star break.
The Athletic’s Law Murray wrote, “The other two aren’t exactly the teams the Lakers want to emulate.” “The 2021 Portland Trail Blazers went 21-14 at the All-Star break while being outscored by 15 points and were eliminated from the Western Conference Quarterfinals against the Denver Nuggets in six games. The 1997 Charlotte Hornets went with a 29-19 record (.604) while being outscored by 15 points and then lost to New York in the 1997 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. Lost to the Knicks.”
As a result of their record, the best of the three on the club, and a stellar, league-best 15–3 record in clutch time, Murray has labeled the Lakers’ season “somewhat extraordinary”.
This could bode well for LeBron James, Luka Doncic and company, although last season, the Lakers lost in the first round of the playoffs despite having a solid record in the regular season following the acquisition of Doncic. Still, the Lakers are almost certainly a better team, in general, than the 2024-25 team, which had a better injury situation and still wasn’t as stable as this year’s Lakers.
Only one LA player has played every game this year: Jake Laravia. Additionally, he is the only player on the team to have played more than 46 games. The Lakers’ star players – James, Doncic and Austin Reaves – have all missed at least a dozen games. Reeves was out more than a month until recently, James missed almost the entire first month of the season, and Doncic was sidelined for the final four games before the All-Star break with a hamstring injury.
The Lakers return to action on Friday against crosstown rivals, the Los Angeles Clippers at home before hosting the Boston Celtics on Sunday.
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