{"id":730590,"date":"2026-05-10T11:15:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T11:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/730590\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T11:15:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T11:15:21","slug":"without-luka-doncic-thunder-series-is-a-lose-lose-for-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/730590\/","title":{"rendered":"Without Luka Doncic, Thunder series is a lose-lose for Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I swear, if Luka Doncic<\/a> was playing, this second-round series against the Oklahoma City Thunder would be going differently.<\/p>\n

The Lakers<\/a> wouldn\u2019t be losing \u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026 second halves by so much.<\/p>\n

But if his hamstring allowed their offensive engine to drive, the offense might not be humming. But the Lakers could probably keep it running.<\/p>\n

They might not be keeping pace, but with the league\u2019s leading scorer contributing, the gap wouldn\u2019t be a year wide by every game\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

The Lakers really miss Doncic. Duh.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not only because, without him, they\u2019re stuck reliving a recurring nightmare; in all three games, the Lakers have played Oklahoma City tough in the first half, including taking the lead into halftime in Games 2 and 3, only for it to be yanked away.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also because they\u2019re also losing data points on the scoreboard going into a pivotal offseason.<\/p>\n

This whole Western Conference semifinal series against these defending champions has been a lose-lose proposition for the Lakers, who are now down 3-0 and staring into the elimination abyss in Game 4 on Monday.<\/p>\n

But throw in the 33.5 points per game Doncic averaged this season, and the Lakers don\u2019t get outscored by a combined 54 points after halftime.<\/p>\n

Calculate for Doncic\u2019s career 30.9 points per playoff game, and let\u2019s assume their high-water mark would surely eclipse Saturday\u2019s tally in their 131-108 Game 3 loss<\/a> at Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n

For whatever that\u2019s worth.<\/p>\n

Which is little compared to what else the Lakers miss with Doncic on the bench, nursing the Grade 2 hamstring strain he suffered on April 2 in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

\"Lakers <\/p>\n

Lakers forward LeBron James, sliding backward across the baseline, looks for a foul call on a missed layup during Game 3 against the Thunder.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

For the Lakers, this end-of-the-road series is most valuable as an evaluation period for next season. It\u2019s a barometer reading: You are here. The Thunder are there.<\/p>\n

The goal now is to build a team around Doncic that could conceivably keep pace with Oklahoma City, and so they\u2019re evaluating who will help do that if they come along for the ride next year.<\/p>\n

But the Lakers are doing these playoff measurements without Doncic on the court. They\u2019re test-driving the wrong car toward vacation.<\/p>\n

Doncic can expect a postcard in the mail: Wish you were there.<\/p>\n

So does he, of course.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very frustrating,\u201d Doncic said between Games 1 and 2, standing with his hands in his pockets, pained to report that he wasn\u2019t close to returning, five weeks into his eight-week return-to-work timeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think people understand how frustrating it is. All I wanna do is play basketball, especially this time. It\u2019s the best time to play basketball. It\u2019s very frustrating seeing what my team is doing. I\u2019m very proud of them. It\u2019s been very tough, to, just to sit and watch them play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

He got to see the Lakers upset the Houston Rockets in a six-game, first-round series without him and, for four games, Austin Reaves \u2014 who is averaging 18.7 points and shooting 40% from the floor and 25% from three-point range this series, having become a higher priority of the Thunder\u2019s physical defense without having to deal with Doncic.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Doncic had to watch another lead \u2014 and with it, another opportunity to steal a game \u2014 disappear as if by a cruel magic trick. As time wore down, Doncic sat on the bench next to Reaves, staring blankly, hands folded in his lap, like so many Lakers fans at the arena.<\/p>\n

The Lakers\u2019 latest deflating loss could have used Doncic\u2019s energy,his showmanship, his fire. He\u2019s among the league-leaders in that, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, yeah, when you have the league\u2019s leading scorer out there \u2013 if he was \u2013 it definitely changes the dynamic of a team,\u201d said guard Luke Kennard<\/a>, who scored 13 of his series-high 18 points in the first half Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we miss him. And we know he\u2019s working his butt off right now [to return to play] \u2026 but yeah, I mean, he would definitely change it for us. But right now, he\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennard is right, of course. Things would be different if Doncic was out there dealing.<\/p>\n

Not that different.<\/p>\n

But the Lakers at least wouldn\u2019t be running out of gas so far from getting home every game, and they\u2019d also have a better idea of how much farther they have to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I swear, if Luka Doncic was playing, this second-round series against the Oklahoma City Thunder would be going…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3790],"tags":[1013,7,20696,90549,509,90551,142,26302,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,90550,646,368,6,179,396,89917,1141],"class_list":{"0":"post-730590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-austin-reaves","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-com-arena","11":"tag-datum-point","12":"tag-doncic","13":"tag-end-of-the-road-series","14":"tag-game","15":"tag-halftime","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-la-lakers","18":"tag-lakers","19":"tag-lalakers","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","22":"tag-losangeles","23":"tag-losangeleslakers","24":"tag-lose-lose","25":"tag-loss","26":"tag-luka-doncic","27":"tag-nba","28":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","29":"tag-team","30":"tag-thunder-series","31":"tag-time"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116549998276222028","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}