With it being a few weeks since a story on the Los Angeles Lakers was written, a much needed update on the team is warranted. So far in this month of November, the Lakers have had some solid performances along with a couple of tough losses on the road. Wins against the Miami Heat, Portland Trail Blazers and San Antonio Spurs started this month out strong. Then, a five-game road trip created a couple of bumps on the road, with losses against shorthanded teams in the Atlanta Hawks and the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder. But the road trip was salvaged with wins against the Charlotte Hornets(without LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller), New Orleans Pelicans(without Zion Williamson and CJ McCollum) and Milwaukee Bucks. After the conclusion of the road trip, news reports came out that LeBron James was on the verge of returning from his sciatica injury that kept him out for the first four weeks of the season. Practicing with the G-League South Bay Lakers, the King was set to make his season debut in his 23rd season of his long storied career, setting a new record for the most consecutive seasons that a player has appeared in NBA history. And on Tue, Nov 18, 2025, the 2025-26 season debut of LeBron Raymone James Sr occurred in a home game against the Utah Jazz at Crypto.com Arena. Before we get to that, a breakdown of the most significant events in this month of Nov 2025 for the Purple & Gold will be broken down. Let’s crossover into it.

Three Wins In Four Days Start Out November Strong, Including A Duel Between Luka Doncic & Victor Wembanyama In Los Angeles

So, to start out November, the Lakers defeated the Heat at home 130-120 with a 29-point showing by Luka Doncic, who also had a triple double with 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Austin Reaves scored 26 points and had a team-leading 11 assists, while the third star in this game for L.A was Jake LaRavia, who scored 25 points off the bench and had eight boards. All of the other starters in the game(Rui Hachimura, Marcus Smart and Jaxson Hayes) all scored over 10 points and had a combined 7 three-pointers made to offset the poor shooting behind the arc by Luka and Reaves in this game. In spite of a tight second half effort by Miami behind 31 points by Jaime Jaquez Jr off the bench, the Heat fizzled out and the Lakers won their fifth game of the season on a Sunday night game.

The very next night, on Mon, Nov 3, the Lakers traveled up the Pacific coast to take on the Portland Trail Blazers, who beat them on a Monday night game the week before. In this game, the Purple & Gold would be massively short-handed as Doncic and Reaves were both out with leg injuries. Not being expected to win, the Lakers shocked the Blazers in a close tight game that featured an unlikely hero in Nick Smith Jr, who scored 25 points off the bench in making 10 of his 13 shots and 5 of 6 from three-point range. The leading scorer was former Portland player DeAndre Ayton, who had 29 points and 10 rebounds. Rui Hachimura scored 28 points while each of the other starters contributed with good efforts of their own. Bronny James even chipped in with five valuable points of his own along with six assists. In another close game, the Lakers barely won in spite of forward Deni Avdjia scoring 33 points and Shaedon Sharpe netting 23 points for the Blazers. Los Angeles won their fourth straight game and did so without four of its most important players. A 123-115 victory to win both ends of a back-to-back was very beneficial for the Lakers, who returned home to play a very interesting game early on in this season.

On Wed, Nov 5, the San Antonio Spurs came to play in downtown L.A as a much-anticipated matchup between Luka Doncic and the tall French superstar Victor Wembanyama was set to occur. Doncic came back from his leg injury and was still going to have to play without the trio of LeBron, Reaves and Vincent in this game. The game was close in the first half, with “Wemby” making his presence known with athletic scoring feats and tough defense with his massive wingspan. But when Wembanyama was on the bench, the Lakers attacked the paint and scored a lot of points close to the basket. The only thing that could stop number 1 in white and black trim was foul trouble as Wemby picked up quite a few fouls and eventually committed his sixth foul in the fourth quarter. The end of the game was tight as Doncic made a huge three-pointer to give the Lakers a one-point lead with two and a half minutes left. Wemby’s final foul occurred a minute after with an offensive charge call being upheld after San Antonio challenged the call on the floor. A near disaster occurred with an inbounds violation being committed by Marcus Smart with over a second left and on the ensuing inbound pass a shooting foul on Jake LaRavia against Julian Champagnie occurred. Champagnie missed the first free throw and tried to “Iverson” the second free throw in order for a lucky tip under a half second to occur, but that plan failed and the Lakers won the game by a narrow margin of two points. The Purple & Gold needed every single point they could get in this one, with Luka scoring 35 of those points while having nine rebounds and 13 assists. Ayton had another double-double with 22 points and 10 boards, while Smart scored 17 points and Hachimura cashed in 15 points. The bench players for L.A only had 21 points, but that was a valuable contribution in a game like this. There were seven Spurs players in double-digits, with Wembanyama having a team-leading 19 points and eight rebounds. The Lakers won their fifth straight game and were set to go on a five-game road trip against different teams located in the southeastern and central parts of the country. Their first true road trip would definitely test them, especially with LeBron James and Gabe Vincent still not ready to come back from their respective injuries.

A Five-City Road Trip Is A Mixed Bag, With Tough Losses Against The Hawks And Thunder Being Supplemented With Good Wins In Charlotte, New Orleans And Milwaukee

To start off a five-game road trip, the Lakers visited the Gate City of Atlanta, Ga to take on the Hawks, who were without their star guard in Trae Young due to him being out with a knee injury. Still without Reaves, the flaws in the offensive attack for Los Angeles were exposed as the Atlanta offense did well with seven players in double-digits in the scoring department. An amazing amount of points were scored in the first half for the Hawks, who led by 14 at halftime. Their lead increased to 26 by the end of the third quarter, with the fourth quarter basically being a useless period in this one. Doncic only scored 22 points and most of the points scored by the other contributors for the Lakers occurred in garbage time. Jarred Vanderbilt had 12 points and 18 rebounds, but that was pretty much the only stat of worthy recognition. A 20-point loss ended the winning streak for Los Angeles, whom had Austin Reaves come back for them in their next game.

A bounce-back game occurred on Mon, Nov 10 against the Charlotte Hornets, who were without LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller. The game was tight in the first half, with the Lakers barely leading at halftime. In the third quarter, the Purple & Gold took over with only 15 points surrendered to the home team Hornets, who gave up 31 points to the strong offensive attack on the other end. In spite of a comeback attempt in the fourth quarter, Charlotte came up short and the Lakers won by ten points. In a game featuring long circus shots made by both Luka and Reaves that didn’t count due to timeouts being called before the shots were attempted, the strong duo combined for 62 points with five threes made by Doncic. The other three starters had double-digit points to offset the meager 11 points scored by the bench which again made a difference in a ten-point win. Miles Bridges led the way for the Hornets with 34 points while rookie guard Kon Kneuppel scored 19 points and had 10 rebounds for a double-double. Now at 8-3, the Lakers were heading west to take on the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder, who were off to an explosive start so far in this season.

Unfortunately in this hyped up game, the Thunder had a massive second quarter that fueled them to a 32-point lead at halftime that was insurmountable for Los Angeles. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continued to show why he’s an MVP quality player as he scored 30 points and had nine assists in having some help from his friends in Isaiah Joe(21 points off the bench), Ajay Mitchell(14 points), the big man combo of Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein(a combined 22 points and 11 rebounds between the two of them) and from former Lakers star Alex Caruso(10 points). So, the Thunder beat L.A by 29 points and held the Lakers under 100 points. No player on the Purple & Gold scored over 20 points, with Luka leading the way with a weak 19 with 7 rebounds and 7 dimes. Inefficient shooting and poor defense were the things that caused the loss to OKC, who is definitely looking to do something for the first time in the NBA since 2018 and 2019 in winning back-to-back titles. There will be other matchups ahead against this fierce team and the Lakers will hopefully be more healthy and prepared to face the Thunder.

Having a day to reset after that worst loss of the season so far, the Purple & Gold traveled back south to take on the New Orleans Pelicans in an NBA Cup group play game. Leading the West Group B heading into this game, the Lakers looked to go up to 2-0 in group play against a shorthanded New Orleans team without Zion Williamson and CJ McCollum. A solid first half built a strong lead for L.A. and while the Pelicans tried their best to keep it close, the first three quarters for the Lakers had 30 points scored in each of them. A successful 14-point win was fueled by a 31-point performance by Reaves, who had seven assists. Doncic scored 24 and had a dozen dimes to go with 7 rebounds. A 20-point, 16 rebound performance occurred for Ayton and 16 bench points once again made a good difference as well. In spite of 35 points scored by Trey Murphy III and 19 by Jeremiah Fears, New Orleans fell to a 2-10 record, which is worst in the Western Conference. The next day, the Pelicans fired head coach Willie Green for the first in-season firing of an NBA coach this season. The Lakers meanwhile had another back-to-back matchup coming up on Sat, Nov 15 against the Milwaukee Bucks, who started out with an 8-5 record in being one game lower than the Lakers through 13 games. A strong surge in the second quarter put the Lakers up by a big lead of 31 points at halftime, a lead that they kept high due to the efficient scoring led by Doncic and Reaves. A good 119-95 win closed out the road trip well for L.A, which had won its 10th game of the season. Doncic had a 41-point performance along with nine rebounds and six assists. Reaves scored 25 points and Ayton had a 20-10 double-double. The lead bench scorers in this game were Jaxson Hayes and Dalton Knecht with a combined 19 points between the two of them. The Lakers were going home for only one game during the next week, and for that game, they received some very encouraging news about the return of the greatest player of his generation.

The Return Of The King On Taco Tuesday: LeBron James Makes His 23rd Season Debut Along With Gabe Vincent’s Comeback From A Hamstring Injury In Filling A Fully Healthy Roster On The Lakers Against The Utah Jazz

After four weeks of waiting, LeBron James was finally ready to make his season debut for 2025-26 after being fully recovered from his sciatica injury. Also returning from a hamstring injury that had kept him out for the past few weeks was shooting guard Gabe Vincent. The Lakers now had a fully healthy roster along with the recent NBA debut of rookie forward Adou Thiero on Sat, Nov 15 in Milwaukee. The Utah Jazz(5-8) came in to play at Crypto.com Arena against LeBron and Luka, who were playing alongside each other for the first time this season. The game started out with a scoring surge by Utah, who had young shooting guard Keyonte George score a lot of points in the first half along with Lauri Markkanen and Svi Mykhailiuk. The Jazz led for the entire first half, but Los Angeles started making strides at the end of the half with fantastic passion by LeBron and scoring by Doncic and others keeping them in it. In the third quarter, the Lakers finally took the lead and would not give it back. A big scoring run took place that pushed the lead up to double-digits and it kept on going higher, as the Lakers had their highest scoring game of the season thus far with 140 points. Utah scored 126 points, but clearly it wasn’t enough for a victory, which the Purple & Gold claimed for their 11th one of the season. Luka scored 37 points with 10 assists and 5 rebounds, while LeBron only scored 11 points but had a game-high 12 dimes. Austin Reaves scored 26 points and DeAndre Ayton had 20 points and 14 boards. Jake LaRavia led the scoring from the bench with 16 points and even Bronny James(who was in the starting lineup for the game in Milwaukee) made a three-pointer in the final minutes of the game on the same night of his dad’s return onto the floor.

The Lakers are now 11-4 and have a chance to push their early record through the first quarter of the season to a higher mark against teams with very poor records currently. They will play the Jazz in Salt Lake City on Sun, Nov 23 and then return home to play their final two games of group play in the NBA Cup in hosting the Los Angeles Clippers(4-10 currently) on Tues, Nov 25 and then a Black Friday matchup against the Dallas Mavericks(4-12 currently). The final game in this month of November will be a Sunday night game on Nov 30 against the New Orleans Pelicans(2-13 currently after firing Willie Green). The Lakers will have extra games on their schedule in December whether they make it to the knockout stage of the NBA Cup or come up short. But for now, they have the benefit of a fully healthy roster with LeBron James back for his record-setting 23rd season and Luka Doncic leading the way along with solid starters Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and DeAndre Ayton. This team is deep and can definitely make strides in being one of the top contenders in the Western Conference this season. We shall see what happens next for the Purple & Gold heading into December.