Since starting the season 15-4, in part thanks to a seven-game win streak down the stretch of November, the Los Angeles Lakers have yet to stack more than three wins in a row. They had another chance to accomplish that feat for the first time in the New Year on Monday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
With injuries sidelining reigning NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and 2025-26 NBA scoring leader Luka Dončić, Crypto.com Arena featured a physical contest that included a combined 52 free throws.
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A scrappy Thunder bunch, which leads the league in defensive rating for the second straight season, outlasted the Lakers 119-110, pulling away in the final minute.
Although Oklahoma City (41-13) had dropped its previous two games in the absence of Gilgeous-Alexander, who will be out through at least the All-Star break, and has looked increasingly vulnerable this season, the Thunder are still the defending NBA champions and the Western Conference’s top team.
Plus, they’re 2-0 against the Lakers (32-20), currently the fifth-place team in the West. More than just eight games separate the Thunder and the Lakers in the conference table, according to LeBron James.
“That’s a championship team right there,” James told reporters postgame. “We’re not.”
The 41-year-old James was then asked what’s keeping the Lakers from joining the Thunder in that echelon.
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“We can’t sustain energy and effort for 48 minutes, and they can,” he said bluntly. “That’s why they won a championship.”
James scored 14 of his 22 points in the second half of the loss. He also logged 10 assists and six rebounds. Austin Reaves, in his fourth game back from a calf injury, pitched in 16 points off the bench. Marcus Smart finished with 19 points and went 4 of 7 from deep.
But James, Reaves and Smart each missed a 3-point attempt in the final 40-some seconds, as the Thunder held on to win, bolstered by a clutch-time, mid-range jumper by Jalen Williams that made it a 115-110 game with 51.9 seconds remaining. Williams had a game-high 23 points, most notably 10 in the final five minutes.
In James’ eyes, shotmaking and 50-50 balls made the difference.
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While the Lakers’ defense has been criticized during the JJ Redick era, including by Redick himself, and they rank 22nd in the NBA in defensive rating this season, James maintained that defense wasn’t the problem on Monday against the Thunder.
James conceded that the Lakers let Isaiah Joe get way too many 3-point looks in the first half and weren’t executing their switches to a high enough level. Joe hit four 3s and scored 19 points.
“But I mean, listen, for the majority of the second half, I thought we was really good defensively,” James said. “We didn’t have that many lapses.”
Redick was even pleased with his group’s effort overall.
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“I think when you play the best teams — and Oklahoma City is clearly — you know, you have to have a really high level of effort and you have to have a really high level of execution,” Redick said, per ESPN.
“It’s got to be both, and I thought for the most part our effort was fantastic. In key stretches of the game, our execution wasn’t great.”
Regardless if it’s execution, effort or energy, these Lakers are too often missing a key ingredient for championship-level success. James called them out after a setback against the defending champs.
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