After their commanding 98-78 win over Houston on Friday night, the Los Angeles Lakers officially punched their ticket to a second-round face-off against the OKC Thunder in this year's postseason.
Considering their first-round series went to Game 6, coupled with the fact that Game 1 of the semifinals now won't be played until Tuesday as a result of Toronto's recent last-second win over the Cavaliers, there seemed to be growing optimism among LA fans that this extended time off would allow injured star Luka Doncic the necessary time to inch himself closer to returning in round two.
Sadly for them, and to the benefit of Oklahoma City, a new report indicated that this hoped-for turn of events doesn't seem all that likely to happen.
Soon after the matchup between the Thunder and Lakers was officially set, ESPN's Brian Windhorst revealed that Doncic is "not close" to returning to in-game action, suggesting that it's more probable than not that he will be sidelined for the entire series against the reigning champions.
"Most likely you're not gonna see Luka Doncic at the front end of this series maybe at least for another week to 10 days on the minimum. So the Lakers are gonna have a reality they're gonna have to do it without [him]," Windhorst said.
Though no player or team should ever root for injuries, in an admittedly ill-sounding way, this lingering ailment should stand to benefit the Thunder in the second round and, in turn, exponentially better their odds of becoming the first team since the 2017 Warriors to pull off two consecutive playoff series sweeps.
Thunder have had Lakers' number all throughout the season
During the 2025-26 regular season, the Thunder and Lakers squared off against one another on four seperate occasions.
OKC came away on the right side of a clean, 4-0 series sweep.
Now, as they approach tip-off to the Western Conference Semifinals, it appears Oklahoma City is unequivocally the odds-on favorite to once again run away with this first-to-four showdown.
No, this status is not merely because of their past successes, but rather because their style of play is built to completely dismantle Los Angeles' production displayed thus far in this year's playoff run.
From the Thunder's ability to take full advantage of Los Angeles' league-leading turnover rates to the Lakers' inability to halt OKC's surging production in the second-chance point department, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and company truly seem to be a nightmare matchup for the West's fourth seed.
With all of this in mind, it seems rather safe to say that Oklahoma City should handily breeze past LA within four or five games, which, considering Windhorst's "another week to 10 days" at best timeline for a possible Doncic return, makes it all the more difficult to believe that the six-time All-Star will be seen at all in this upcoming series.
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