No team has given the Los Angeles Lakers more problems this season than the Oklahoma City Thunder. The defending NBA Champions have owned the Lakers this year, winning all six matchups so far and now holding a 2-0 series lead in their second round playoff series.
Making this worse is that most of the games haven’t even been close and that is something the Lakers have never experienced. According to ESPN Insights, the Thunder are the first team to beat the Lakers by 15 points or more five times in the same season since the NBA/ABA merger in 1976.
The Thunder have beaten the Lakers by at least 15 points 5 times this season (regular season and playoffs).
That's the most 15-point wins in a season for any team against the Lakers since the 1976 merger 😲 pic.twitter.com/VRwEsyIFzU
— ESPN Insights (@ESPNInsights) May 8, 2026
The graphic here does make a mistake as it lists the one game this season between these teams that doesn’t fit this criteria. Coincidentally, that was also the only game this year that was played in Los Angeles in which the Lakers had their stars in the lineup. However, the final regular season meeting, a 123-87 Thunder win, isn’t shown on the graphic so the stat itself is still true.
The Thunder are a bad matchup for most teams but that especially has been the case with the Lakers, though it should be mentioned that at least one of the Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, LeBron James trio has missed all but one of those games with the exception being the April 2 contest in which Doncic left early with that Grade 2 left hamstring strain that he is still recovering from.
What has to be frustrating in this playoff series for the Lakers so far is that they have done some good things, particularly in slowing down reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. They’ve been competitive through three quarters in both games, but still have wound up losing by 18 twice as the depth of the Thunder has overwhelmed them.
Perhaps being at home at the Crypto.com Arena will allow for the Lakers to turn things around and get over the hump against the Thunder, but so far in 2026 they have had the Lakers’ number at a historic level.
JJ Redick discusses how Lakers can get back into series
After the Game 2 loss, JJ Redick discussed the issues that are plaguing the Lakers that need to be corrected if they want to get back in the series.
“We’re starting to see some trends here and we probably need to go back to the two keys we had against Houston, which was take care of the ball and box out,” Redick said. “Because it’s not a high volume, but they’ve killed us in two games. Every time they’ve gotten and offensive rebound, they’ve scored.”
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