The Los Angeles Lakers have been rolling of late, winners of all three games since LeBron James made his season debut last week. James has taken more of a secondary role since rejoining the lineup, but that has paid dividends for Los Angeles so far, which currently sits at 13-4 on the season so far.
James was most impressive in the team's recent win over the Los Angeles Clippers at home, recording 25 points to go along with six rebounds and six assists in that victory per Statmuse, and turning up the scoring when his team needed him to most.
Of course, the Lakers are still not without their skeptics, who view them as being several tiers below the Oklahoma City Thunder, who won the NBA championship last year and have started out 18-1 so far in 2025-26. Recently, the Lakers were blown out by the Thunder, made even more embarrassing by the fact that Oklahoma City was on the second night of a back to back in that game.
While James, who was not yet back in the lineup for that game, would certainly help to offset some of Oklahoma City's ability to wall off driving lanes, it would still appear that the Lakers would be at a significant talent deficit, particularly defensively, against the Thunder.
Los Angeles currently does not have many, if any, legitimate two way players on the roster. Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic have both gotten off to elite offensive starts but are far from stoppers on the defensive end of the floor. Marcus Smart and Jarred Vanderbilt are both elite defenders, but are sporadic at best on offense. Rui Hachimura has also seen his defensive reputation take a significant hit since joining Los Angeles.
This being the case, the Lakers are still probably a big piece away from truly competing with a Thunder team that has two-way players at every position of the roster, and even then, it would only be a puncher's chance.
