No Jaxson Hayes but Marcus Smart has been upgraded to questionable and LeBron is AVAILABLE
Realistic Offseason — 49,500,000 Luka Doncic
12,428,571 Jarred Vanderbilt
8,104,000 Deandre Ayton
6,000,000 Jake LaRavia
4,201,080 Dalton Knecht
2,296,271 Bronny James
2,150,917 Adou Thiero
6,800,000 Incomplete Roster Charge (1.36 x 5)
\-
Payroll: 91,480,839
Cap Hold: 20,906,361 Austin Reaves
Total: 112,387,200
Salary Cap: 165,000,000
Cap Space: 52,612,800
\-
Signing:
25,000,000 LeBron James (27,612,800)
15,000,000 Marcus Smart (12,612,800)
12,600,000 Luke Kennard
9,425,000 Rui Hachimura (Room Exce
[Post Game Thread] The Oklahoma City Thunder (62-16) demolish the South Bay Lakers (50-28), 123-87. — ||
|:-:|
|[](/OKC) **123 - 85** [](/LAL)|
|**Box Scores: [NBA](http://www.nba.com/game/OKC-vs-LAL-0022501155/box-score) - [Yahoo](https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/scoreboard/)**|
||
|:-:|
| |
|**GAME SUMMARY**|
|**Location:** Crypto.com Arena|
|**Officials:** Pat Fraher, Justin Van Duyne, and Ashley Moyer-Gleich|
|**Team**|**Q1**|**Q2**|**Q3**|**Q4**|**Total**|
|:---|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|
|Oklahoma City Thunder|34|31|28|30|123|
|Los Angeles Lakers|27|20|15|23|85|
||
|:-:|
| |
|**TEAM ST
[Panerio] Cowherd: "Lakers are a sports car, and their answer for everything is more power. Handling—don’t worry about it. Aerodynamics—somebody else’s problem. Braking, tires—eh, somebody else can worry about it. Let’s give us more horsepower... And that’s been Rob Pelinka’s answer to everything.” — ​
“This was the inevitable conclusion,” Colin stressed.
“JJ Redick inherited a completely lopsided roster. He should be up for Coach of the Year. They have no bench. They can’t shoot threes. They can’t rebound. They’ve got no rim protector. They lack ‘3-and-D’ guys in a ‘3-and-D’ league,” the veteran pundit added.
For context, Luka played 35.8 minutes a game, which actually isn’t outrageous for a player of his caliber. However, his usage rate of 38.6—which is a career-high—essentially
This team should be enough to win at least 2 of the last 4 games. — With Jake, Hayes, Vando, and Kleber off the bench, we should win at least 2 of the GSW, PHO, and JAZZ matchups.
We just need the Nuggets to lose their games against SAS and OKC, and we'll finish at 3rd seed.
[Injury Report] RIP LEBRON
Adam Silver should let Lebron juice up for only the 1st round of the playoffs — I mean, we lose Luka D Doncic and Austin Reaves, and marcus smart is a little on the fence, it is only fair to let Lebron take that shit so he can get some help no?
Laker faithful!! We going thru it.
Lakers Injury Report For April 5th against Dallas
Our odds of winning the championship prior to the OKC game was sitting around +3000. Following Luka's injury status it spiked to +10000 and after AR's status was announced it sits at +70000. — tldr; Vegas thinks we are completely screwed and out of the running for any chance of a deep postseason run. The shit posting can be funny but at the end of the day people need to taper their expectations because a 41 year old Lebron is not enough to carry a flawed roster when we've been top heavy all year.
Posting this because I think it's important for people to be realistic and stop setting such high and unrealistic expectations for LeBron to carry this team without Luka and AR. There's no
[Murray] Marcus Smart remains out. Hasn't played in two weeks due to right ankle contusion.
Jarred Vanderbilt is also questionable for Sunday at Dallas due to right calf soreness
In addition to Luka Doncic (hamstring) and Austin Reaves (oblique) dealing with Grade 2 strains
Bro, what the hell is this injury report, what do you mean we can lose Vando as well...
[McMenamin] JJ Redick says Austin Reaves had multiple MRI exams on his left side/ribs in Dallas. His status for Sunday in Dallas is TBD, per the Lakers. Marcus Smart also remains TBD, per the team. — [McMenamin] JJ Redick says Austin Reaves had multiple MRI exams on his left side/ribs in Dallas. His status for Sunday in Dallas is TBD, per the Lakers. Marcus Smart also remains TBD, per the team.
------
[McMenamin] JJ Redick says Austin Reaves had multiple MRI exams on his left side/ribs in Dallas. His status for Sunday in Dallas is TBD, per the Lakers. Marcus Smart also remains TBD, per the team.
------
Source: [Dave McMenamin](https://i.imgur.com/pnyglZc.png)
Cap experts can you explain how much cap space will we have next season? I know that Austin reaves will have a 20m cap hold. So if we don’t re-sign Rui Kleber and keep Kennard at a similar contract will we have around 70m in cap space?
would this game have been different if marcus smart was available? — i feel like we would still lose but not by this much if smart was available, mostly due to luka getting injured and austin reaves out of breath.
JJ Redick says Marcus Smart could play as soon as Sunday against the Dallas Mavericks
Injury Report against OKC Thunder tomorrow. Smart is still out 😳
Stop building Luka's MVP case; you're setting him up to fail with a flawed roster. — There is no chance in any world that Luka wins the MVP; he was never truly in the running. He was miraculously moved up to second place on the MVP ladder out of nowhere simply to build engagement. The purpose was clear: build Luka up, then flood the media with segments about how a player who plays zero defense shouldn't be the frontrunner, ultimately presenting "Wemby for MVP" as the solution. We are all well aware of how that campaign has played out.
Besides that, the problem with this narrat
3 GOOD/3 BAD/1 WTF for 3/31/26 vs Cavaliers — Okay, I did not see THAT coming. I thought this would be a tough game against a quality opponent, and even though both teams were on the second night of a back to back, with Allen and Strus returning I thought Cleveland would be locked in. Turns out Luka returning was all the Lakers needed and even without our defensive anchor in Smart...we just walloped the Cavs. If we beat OKC on Thursday, chalk me up officially as a believer that this team is a contender. Not just a fringe contender, but
LeBron James is questionable tonight vs Cavs, Marcus Smart is out
Smart a finalist for Truman-Stokes Teammate of the year award
[Post Game Thread] The Los Angeles Lakers (49-26) defeat the Washington Wizards (17-58), 120-101. —
||
|:-:|
|[](/WAS) **101 - 120** [](/LAL)|
|**Box Scores: [NBA](http://www.nba.com/game/WAS-vs-LAL-0022501098/box-score) - [Yahoo](https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/scoreboard/)**|
||
|:-:|
| |
|**GAME SUMMARY**|
|**Location:** Crypto.com Arena|
|**Officials:** Sean Corbin, Josh Tiven, and Pat O'Connell|
|**Team**|**Q1**|**Q2**|**Q3**|**Q4**|**Total**|
|:---|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|
|Washington Wizards|26|18|33|24|101|
|Los Angeles Lakers|25|40|26|29|120|
||
|:-:|
| |
|**TEAM STATS**|
|**
[Post Game Thread] The Los Angeles Lakers (49-26) defeat the Washington Wizards (17-58), 120-101. — ||
|:-:|
|[](/WAS) **101 - 120** [](/LAL)|
|**Box Scores: [NBA](http://www.nba.com/game/WAS-vs-LAL-0022501098/box-score) - [Yahoo](https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/scoreboard/)**|
||
|:-:|
| |
|**GAME SUMMARY**|
|**Location:** Crypto.com Arena|
|**Officials:** Sean Corbin, Josh Tiven, and Pat O'Connell|
|**Team**|**Q1**|**Q2**|**Q3**|**Q4**|**Total**|
|:---|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|
|Washington Wizards|26|18|33|24|101|
|Los Angeles Lakers|25|40|26|29|120|
||
|:-:|
| |
|**TEAM STATS**|
|**T
Marcus Smart locks up ANT 😤
Luka, Marcus, and Adou are out tomorrow vs Wizards
Full year of Luka, Austin, LeBron has a Net Rating of -.09 and jumps up to +16.9 when Marcus Smart is added — Credit to Cranjis @Tim\_NBA on X
He also cites: There were just 30 possessions pre-ASB with Luka + AR + Smart + Bron with no Rui. LA was completely dominant in those minutes on the tiny sample.
We're finally getting to see better role slotting along with the insertion of an excellent defender to the mix and that's had a huge impact.
How Injuries Have Impacted The Top 4 MVP Candidates' Teams — With team record and on-off data being a large part of the 2025-26 MVP discussion, it's worthwhile to understand the health of each MVP's supporting cast, as teammate health has a large effect on both of those statistics. These lists show each team's top 7 players (besides the MVP candidates) numbers of games missed, with the top 7 teammates being chosen using DunksandThree's EPM model to determine the "best" 7 teammates. This was done to avoid having unproven or relatively unimportant players l
[Post Game Thread] The Los Angeles Lakers (47-26) defeat the Brooklyn Nets (17-56), 116-99 behind Lukas 41 point performance — ||
|:-:|
|[](/BKN) **99 - 116** [](/LAL)|
|**Box Scores: [NBA](http://www.nba.com/game/BKN-vs-LAL-0022501075/box-score) - [Yahoo](https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/scoreboard/)**|
||
|:-:|
| |
|**GAME SUMMARY**|
|**Location:** Crypto.com Arena|
|**Officials:** Sean Wright, Brian Forte, and JD Ralls|
|**Team**|**Q1**|**Q2**|**Q3**|**Q4**|**Total**|
|:---|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|
|Brooklyn Nets|30|29|25|15|99|
|Los Angeles Lakers|35|26|24|31|116|
||
|:-:|
| |
|**TEAM STATS**|
|**Team**|**PTS
Marcus Smart's Defensive Impact — While some of this is due to us just not having a competent POA defender on the roster outside of him, Marcus Smart is still proving borderline elite level impact as a defender even in his 30s. He's such an integral player on our roster and is in pretty much every single one of our best lineups.
Spurs are +26.3 when Victor Wembanyama is on the court since ASB — That's by far the best in the league (min 200 minutes). It’s a historic number and simply quantifies what everyone sees when watching Victor Wembanyama. Across every catch-all metric out there, his defensive impact is in the 100th percentile and he's in the 90-98th percentile on offense depending on which one you look at.
[Plus Minus per 100 possessions & Minutes Played: woah... someone is not human](https://preview.redd.it/6bu9sxbjvjrg1.png?width=852&format=png&auto=webp&s=8321295e2f47150bef7e
Luka questionable tomorrow vs the Nets
4 GOOD/2 BAD/1 WTF for 3/25/26 vs Pacers — Does anyone else get more anxious when the Lakers are up 20+ points than when they're in a close game? I'm more comfortable in the clutch than in a blowout because I know our guys lock in. Anyway, I've never been as nervous during a wire to wire victory as last night's game but 5-1 road trip! Let's dive in....
**GOOD**
**The Big 3 -** I said before the game just the Big 3's talent should overwhelm the Pacers enough for us to win without playing our best and the Big 3 came through. 94 combine
Our defense — Just wanted to say I Liked the way our defense played without smart the last 2 games. Obviously smart is our most important defensive player. If this is how we play without him on defense I am really happy with that!
Edit for clarity: we kept detroit below their avg ppg and ts%. The pacers game except the last quarter where ee checker out a bit because of the lead was good. Marcus is ofcourse our most important defensive player. But we still kept the pistons below their average ppg and ts% with
[Post Game Thread] The Los Angeles Lakers (47-26) defeat the Indiana Pacers (16-57), 137-130. — ||
|:-:|
|[](/LAL) **137 - 130** [](/IND)|
|**Box Scores: [NBA](http://www.nba.com/game/LAL-vs-IND-0022501052/box-score) - [Yahoo](https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/scoreboard/)**|
||
|:-:|
| |
|**GAME SUMMARY**|
|**Location:** Gainbridge Fieldhouse|
|**Officials:** Eric Dalen, Ben Taylor, and Evan Scott|
|**Team**|**Q1**|**Q2**|**Q3**|**Q4**|**Total**|
|:---|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|
|Los Angeles Lakers|45|30|30|32|137|
|Indiana Pacers|28|31|26|45|130|
||
|:-:|
| |
|**TEAM STATS**|
|**Team
Most Steals In The Month Of March
Which Laker has exceeded your expectations this season? — Honestly, it’s Marcus Smart. Sure his shooting has been abysmal at times, but the tenacity he brings on defense is something the Lakers have lacked for the longest time. I still think about that steal he got late in overtime against the Nuggets to give us the lead. In any case, he should be untouchable.
You can easily make the argument for Luka as well, even though we all know it’s Luka Doncic. He has been carrying this team so much that he really deserves an MVP.
EDIT: I have to give a ton of
Injury report for tomorrow vs. Pacers: Rui & Adou are QUESTIONABLE, Marcus is DOUBTFUL
The Big Ballhandler Meta — Summary: An analysis of the height of teams' leaders in usage and time of possession vs. 5 and 10 years ago. Usage leaders up from 6'5.6 to 6'7, time of posession leaders up from 6'2.1 to 6'5. At the same time, the average time of possession for a team's leader has dropped from 6.5min to 5.5min, suggesting less traditional point guard initiation (including heliocentrism), and a shift towards more ball movement in offenses (and/or more skilled role players). Teams using the same player for highes
[Post Game Thread] The Detroit Pistons (52-19) hold back the Los Angeles Lakers (46-26), 113-110. —
||
|:-:|
|[](/LAL) **110 - 113** [](/DET)|
|**Box Scores: [NBA](http://www.nba.com/game/LAL-vs-DET-0022501038/box-score) - [Yahoo](https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/scoreboard/)**|
||
|:-:|
| |
|**GAME SUMMARY**|
|**Location:** Little Caesars Arena|
|**Officials:** John Goble, Scott Twardoski, and Natalie Sago|
|**Team**|**Q1**|**Q2**|**Q3**|**Q4**|**Total**|
|:---|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|
|Los Angeles Lakers|27|25|35|23|110|
|Detroit Pistons|23|42|24|24|113|
||
|:-:|
| |
|**TEAM STATS**|
Rui got hit in the calf and Marcus tweaked his ankle and has hip soreness from the Orlando game. Both are considered day-to-day
[Post Game Thread] The Los Angeles Lakers (45-25) defeat the Orlando Magic (38-31), 105-104. —
||
|:-:|
|[](/LAL) **105 - 104** [](/ORL)|
|**Box Scores: [NBA](http://www.nba.com/game/LAL-vs-ORL-0022501024/box-score) - [Yahoo](https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/scoreboard/)**|
||
|:-:|
| |
|**GAME SUMMARY**|
|**Location:** Kia Center|
|**Officials:** Sean Corbin, Marc Davis, and Marat Kogut|
|**Team**|**Q1**|**Q2**|**Q3**|**Q4**|**Total**|
|:---|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|
|Los Angeles Lakers|37|25|20|23|105|
|Orlando Magic|30|35|22|17|104|
||
|:-:|
| |
|**TEAM STATS**|
|**Team**|**PTS*
[Highlight] Marcus Smart trips Goga Bitadze and receives a technical foul right away (with replays). Smart claims he didn't intentionally tripped Goga (who also landed on his foot)
[Injury] Marcus Smart appears injured after taking an awkward fall contesting Desmond Bane
Orlando is on a 3-game losing streak and after being torched two Alexanders for 40 points, I'm going to check the Lakers roster for any other Alexanders just to be safe. — Charlotte dropped a ton of threes on our head, but they've been doing for three months now, so no Alexanders needed for that. Lakers are on a roll though, so they may not need an Alexander for this game. This honestly feels like a "Where's Austin?" game since LeBron and Luka have both been having a great week.
---
**LeBron Raymone James** - Nope (Safe; We know everything about LeBron now, so not much to report. But, did you know he loves dino nuggies? You didn't? It's because I made it up)
[Post Game Thread] The Los Angeles Lakers (44-25) defeat the Miami Heat (38-31), 134-126. — ||
|:-:|
|[](/LAL) **134 - 126** [](/MIA)|
|**Box Scores: [NBA](http://www.nba.com/game/LAL-vs-MIA-0022501010/box-score) - [Yahoo](https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/scoreboard/)**|
||
|:-:|
| |
|**GAME SUMMARY**|
|**Location:** Kaseya Center|
|**Officials:** Derrick Collins, Courtney Kirkland, and Mark Lindsay|
|**Team**|**Q1**|**Q2**|**Q3**|**Q4**|**Total**|
|:---|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|
|Los Angeles Lakers|29|30|38|37|134|
|Miami Heat|42|23|23|38|126|
||
|:-:|
| |
|**TEAM STATS**|
|**Te
[Highlight] LeBron James with the powerful alley-oop dunk off a lob by Marcus Smart (with replays). Lakers and ESPN commentaries
[Post Game Thread] The Los Angeles Lakers (44-25) defeat the Houston Rockets (41-27), 124-116 to continue their win streak to 7. — ||
|:-:|
|[](/LAL) **124 - 116** [](/HOU)|
|**Box Scores: [NBA](http://www.nba.com/game/LAL-vs-HOU-0022501007/box-score) - [Yahoo](https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/scoreboard/)**|
||
|:-:|
| |
|**GAME SUMMARY**|
|**Location:** Toyota Center|
|**Officials:** Sean Wright, Brent Barnaky, and Mousa Dagher|
|**Team**|**Q1**|**Q2**|**Q3**|**Q4**|**Total**|
|:---|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|
|Los Angeles Lakers|35|32|22|35|124|
|Houston Rockets|26|29|37|24|116|
||
|:-:|
| |
|**TEAM STATS**|
|**Team*
[Highlight] Lebron collects the lob from Marcus Smart for the one-handed oop slam
[Highlight] Austin Reaves intercepts the horrible inbound pass by the Rockets, and then he finds LeBron James for the dunk to ice the game. Marcus Smart dives for the incoming inbound pass, nearly steals it, and KD scores his first points of the 4th quarter. NBC, Lakers, Rockets commentaries
[Highlight] Jake LaRavia with the putback layup after Marcus Smart's side-of-the-backboard brick (with a replay)
[Clip Request] Jake LaRavia with the putback layup after Marcus Smart's side-of-the-backboard brick — Source: https://www.espn.com/nba/playbyplay/_/gameId/401810844
Happened with 9:37 left in the second corner of the Lakers @ Rockets game. One of the niftier anticipation plays that will probably be lost to history
Lakers finally beat the Jokic-led Nuggets in the clutch for the first time in 1,776 days. — Before tonight, the Lakers were **0-11 in clutch games** against a healthy Denver squad since May 2021. If it was close late, Nuggets fans knew they’d win.
# Lakers vs. Nuggets (Since 2021)
***Clutch games are bolded.***
|**Season / Playoffs**|**Date**|**Result**|**Score**|**Lakers’ Biggest Lead**|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|**2025-26**|**Mar 14, 2026**|**W**|**127 - 125 (OT)**|**+17**|
|**2025-26**|**Mar 5, 2026**|**L**|**113 - 120**|**+10**|
|2025-26|Jan 20, 2026\*|W|115 - 107\*|\+12|
|2024-25|Mar 1
Marcus Smart in an overtime thriller against the Denver Nuggets: 21 PTS 3 REBS 2 ASTS 5 STLS 1 BLK on 8-15 FG 5-12 3PT 0-0 FT — MARCUS SMART IS STILL AN AMAZING BASKETBALL PLAYER !!!!
Hit a huge 3 in overtime to give the Lakers the lead. What a performance. 5 steals. Was the primary defender on Jamal Murray and kept him to a single FGM (ended up fouling out)
He genuinely changed my life.
[Box Score](https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401810829)
[Highlight] 3 by Marcus Smart puts the lakers back on top with 30s remaining