Kent Bewley's News Story Collection

The Los Angeles Lakers have concluded their 2025-26 regular season with a three-game winning streak following a three-game losing streak that came with the devastating news that Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves were both sidelined with different lower leg injuries. With Doncic’s hamstring strain and Reaves’ oblique strain, the Lakers were left scrambling for answers as to how they would close out the regular season schedule, what seed they would be in the playoffs and who they were going to face in the First Round. All of those questions were answered over the course of the past week, where they suffered a couple of rough losses but the LakeShow powered through to guarantee themselves home-court advantage in the Western Conference First Round. Behind the prowess of a 41-year old LeBron James and some good offensive performances from players such as DeAndre Ayton, Rui Hachimura and Luke Kennard, the Lakers eventually got back on the winning track against three weaker teams in the standings. And now they are set to go on an interesting playoff journey in the hopes of getting at least one of their star players back for a Second Round series if they advance that far.

Following their 139-96 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thur, Apr 2 and the news about Doncic and Reaves’ diagnoses, the Purple & Gold played against the Dallas Mavericks on Easter Sunday. With LeBron leading the way, the Lakers got behind by a lot of points versus Dallas due to the clutch play by rookie sensation Cooper Flagg, who scored 45 points, eight rebounds and nine assists. Nobody could guard Flagg and the Mavs held some big leads over the Lakers, who tried to come back in the second half but were overmatched. LeBron scored 30 points and had 15 assists in having an impressive double-double that was one rebound short of being a triple-double. Jaxson Hayes and Hachimura both had over 20 points each, while Kennard had a surprising triple-double of 15 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists. In spite of six players scoring in double-figures, Los Angeles lost by six points to Dallas, which made 14 three-pointers and forced 12 turnovers.

The next game for the Lakers was basically a throwaway game against the Thunder at home, with LeBron out due to foot injury management and Hayes out due to a foot injury of his own. In spite of a competitive first 20 minutes to the game, the Purple & Gold fell way behind and OKC won by a slightly lesser margin of 36 points from the nightmarish game from five nights beforehand. The next game for the Lakers was a road trip to San Francisco to take on the Golden State Warriors, who were dealing with injury woes of their own. Stephen Curry had recently returned from a knee injury, but he was being held out due to load management. The same was true with Kristaps Porzingis, Quentin Post and Gui Santos for the Warriors. So, LeBron was back and he would not be able to have a game against his good buddy and fellow rival in Steph Curry at all in this 2025-26 regular season. The first half was a close one at the Chase Center, but the Lakers held the lead for the majority of it and were up by four at halftime. In the third quarter, the Purple & Gold pulled away with some great breakaway offense fueled by aggressive defense. Leading by double-digits for the bulk of the second half, there were even moments when father and son helped each other on the floor. Bronny James continued his ramped-up bench role and scored 10 points and had an assist to his father, who scored a slam dunk in transition. LeBron repaid the deed by dishing out an assist to his eldest son, who made a three-pointer in the fourth quarter. A huge 119-103 win snapped the losing streak for L.A and got them back into good position in the West standings. The King led the way with 26 points, eight rebounds and 11 dimes. DeAndre Ayton scored 21 points and the other three starters scored in double-figures as well. Off the bench, Bronny had his ten points and Nick Smith Jr scored a dozen by making four threes.

There were still massive seeding ramifications in the West for the Lakers with two games remaining as they held a head-to-head advantage over the Houston Rockets for fourth place in the standings. Los Angeles also had a chance to catch up with the Denver Nuggets, who were on a long winning streak that propelled them to third place. On Fri, Apr 10, both the Lakers and Rockets were in action playing their separate games. The Purple & Gold were hosting the Phoenix Suns, who were locked into the Play-In Tournament in seventh place and were resting some of their star players. Houston was hosting the sixth-place Minnesota Timberwolves and if they lost that game and the Lakers won their game, then Los Angeles would clinch home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The game against Phoenix was a low-scoring grinder, in which the Lakers took control and kept it for the majority of the game. A double-digit lead was massively extended upon and a 101-73 win was very beneficial to the Purple & Gold because the Rockets were defeated by the Wolves on their home floor by a final score of 136-132. The Lakers had officially secured a top-four seed in the West and did so with LeBron scoring 28 points and having 12 assists. Kennard had an efficient game as well with 19 points as he continued to take advantage of being put into an important offensive role with Luka and Reaves sidelined. There was also good news from an injury standpoint as Marcus Smart had returned back to action after being out for nearly three weeks due to an ankle injury. Smart tallied six points, five rebounds and seven assists in his return.

Now heading into the regular season finale on Sun, Apr 12, the Lakers still had one thing left to play for in potentially securing the third seed in the West. The Nuggets were still on their winning streak, which had stretched to 11 games, and they were going to rest most of their stars other than Nikola Jokic, who needed to play in order to reach 65 games minimum to qualify for the post-regular season NBA awards. The Nuggets were playing against the San Antonio Spurs, who were already locked into the two seed but the only significant guy that they were resting was Victor Wembanyama, who had already reached the 65-game threshold. But if Denver lost and the Lakers defeated a 22-win Utah Jazz team, the Purple & Gold would be the three seed due to them holding the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Nuggets. Thankfully, both games were occurring in the same time window on Sunday evening for everyone who was interested to be scoreboard watching. In both games, the Lakers and Nuggets were off and running right away with some big leads, with Los Angeles leading Utah by 17 at the half and Denver holding a 14-point edge over San Antonio at halftime. In the second half, the Lakers kept their big lead up on the Jazz, while the Spurs attempted a comeback over the Nuggets. The lead for Denver would always go back down to single-digits only to see them push it back up. But San Antonio did play hard due to the fact of the three seed and two seed being in the same bracket for a possible Second Round matchup. A matchup over a more playoff-experienced in recent years Nuggets team wouldn’t be as favorable as a possible matchup against a Lakers team relying on Luka Doncic and/or Austin Reaves to return. In spite of the Spurs’ strong effort and getting the deficit down to as few as six points in crunch time, Denver held them off and won 128-118 to officially clinch the three seed and win their 12th straight game heading into the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Lakers had handily defeated Utah 131-107 and LeBron only played in the first half, where he was efficient in scoring 18 points and doling out six assists. Ayton and Hachimura each had the same statline in having double-doubles in scoring 22 points and grabbing ten rebounds each. Meanwhile, off the bench Bronny scored 11 while Nick Smith tallied 12 points in being signed to a two-year contract extension with the Lakers and being guaranteed a spot on the team’s playoff roster. But the most surprising performance in garbage time came from the unused Dalton Knecht, who scored 17 points and made five three-pointers in the fourth quarter alone. Knecht has been mostly resigned to being a benchwarmer this season following a failed attempt to trade him in Feb 2025 to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for center Mark Williams that was nixed due to some health corners with the center. Knecht has appeared in games at the G-League level this season, where he averaged 18 points and six rebounds per game for the South Bay Lakers. So, the potential is there for Knecht, it’s just a matter of whether the coaching staff is willing to use him off the bench in highly critical game situations or not.

As the four seed in the West following a 53-29 regular season record, the Purple & Gold are now prepared to go on an interesting playoff run. They are going to be matched up with the Rockets, who are the fifth seed, in the Western Conference First Round. The Lakers faced Houston three times in the regular season, with the Rockets beating them at Crypto.com Arena on Christmas Day but two wins over them at the Toyota Center in mid-March proved to be critical in determining which team in this series would have home-court advantage. To start out, that team is the Lakers, who are obviously going to be without Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves in this series. Potentially out for the entirety of the First Round, Luka and Reaves will be watching from the sidelines while rehabbing quickly for a potential return later in the playoffs. Missing the backbone of the backcourt won’t be easy for L.A, but the Rockets have some offensive flaws that can be exploited with some good intense defense. Having star players such as Kevin Durant, Amen Thompson, Alperen Sengun and others, Houston is seeking their first playoff series win since the 2020 NBA Bubble playoffs in Florida. Both of these franchises last met in the playoffs in the Second Round of those isolated playoffs, with the Lakers winning that series in five games. The only remaining members from each of those rosters from Los Angeles and Houston are LeBron James and Clint Capela respectively. This will also be the fourth time that LeBron and Durant have played against each other in a playoff series, with the previous three being NBA Finals matchups. Two of the game’s brightest old stars will face off against each other in a First Round series worth watching for all the right reasons. This could be LeBron’s last chance to get a potential fifth championship ring, unless he plays for a team next season that can legitimately go on a run to the Finals. For Durant, the one thing weighing down on his playoff legacy is his lack of success without being on two great Warriors teams that cemented a dynasty in the Bay Area in the previous decade. And whoever wins this series will have to more than likely play against the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the Second Round.

With an underdog status due to not having two of their best players available, the Lakers are going to have to grind big time in order to win this seven-game series(if only the First Round could revert back to its original best-of-five benchmark in this case). The guys that the Purple & Gold didn’t have in the playoffs last season are going to have to prove their worth. DeAndre Ayton needs to be that consistent center in terms of scoring, rebounding and defense. Marcus Smart has to be that clutch scorer and defender that he has shown himself to be in different playoff runs with the Boston Celtics. Jake LaRavia needs to be a ball hawk on defense and on the boards along with providing some good scoring as a forward. And Luke Kennard, who was acquired at the trade deadline, needs to take and make as many three-point shots as necessary in order to help lead this team to four wins in this series. LeBron can’t do it all, but he sure can do a lot on both ends of the floor. With a treasure trove of iconic playoff moments, King James will have to turn back the clock one more time in order to keep this team afloat while Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are unavailable. This isn’t going to be easy, but nobody said it would ever be that way. The Lakers can shock the world and potentially go on a deep run in these playoffs if they have a little bit of luck and clutch moments go their way(they have the best clutch game record in the NBA this season with a 22-8 mark in those types of games). The pressure is still on this team, coached by J.J Redick and his assistants, to not be eliminated early in the playoffs. If they can at least get to the Second Round without their two massively important guards, then the Lakers will have shown the ability to fight and not give up until the final whistle. But in the NBA playoffs, anything can happen and as a four seed, the Purple & Gold can sure go a long way. Their first matchup against the Rockets will be in downtown Los Angeles on Sat, Apr 18 at 5:30 p.m. PST, so the NBA world will get to see this undermanned team in primetime open up their sixth playoff run with LeBron James on their roster. Let’s see how this will all play out in due time.