“That OKC game woke us up.” – Deandre Ayton explains how the blowout loss to the defending champs during their five-game road trip helped the Lakers realize the effort they have to bring nightly to achieve what they hope to achieve this season. pic.twitter.com/XXWt6jKzty
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) November 16, 2025
The Los Angeles Lakers were dealt a harsh reality check on Wednesday by the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder, who may be even more dominant than they were last season. They lost to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and crew by 29 points, and it was a reminder that while the Lakers may be a good team, they likely aren’t championship contenders, at least not right now.
But they bounced back on Friday and downed the New Orleans Pelicans 118-104, then trounced Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks by 24 points the following evening. As a result, they finished with a 3-2 record on the five-game road trip they completed on Saturday, and they currently sit in fourth place in the Western Conference with a 10-4 mark.
Lakers center Deandre Ayton posted 20 points on 9-of-13 field-goal shooting, 10 rebounds, two steals and one block versus Milwaukee. He said that the loss to Oklahoma City woke up the team.
“I was telling [Maxi] Kleber and Vando (Jarred Vanderbilt), ‘That OKC game woke us up,’ you know what I’m saying?” Ayton said.
One of the traits of good and great teams is the ability to “flush” a bad loss, such as the one L.A. had at the hands of the Thunder, learn from it and become better afterward. Its win over Milwaukee was probably its best of this season so far, especially since it held Milwaukee without a field goal for the last eight minutes of the second quarter and allowed Antetokounmpo and crew to shoot just 40% from the field for the game.
Ayton has been playing well to start the season, and he doesn’t resemble the lackadaisical, disgruntled player he was accused of being during the previous two seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers. He’s averaging 16.2 points on an amazing 69.2% from the field and 8.4 rebounds in 30.4 minutes a game, and his defensive effort seems to have improved.
While his rebounding average is below his career average of 10.4 boards a game, that number is skewed a bit because of a game against the Memphis Grizzlies in which he played just 17 minutes and had no rebounds due to a back ailment. He snatched 16 rebounds on Friday versus the Pelicans.