{"id":193738,"date":"2026-05-02T13:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T17:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=193738"},"modified":"2026-05-02T13:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T17:31:10","slug":"james-leads-lakers-to-western-conference-semis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/05\/02\/james-leads-lakers-to-western-conference-semis\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron James Leads Lakers To Western Conference Semis for Just 3rd Time, Is Luka Doncic Returning Against OKC?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Lakers have advanced to the Western Conference semifinals for the first time in three seasons after eliminating the pesky Houston Rockets<\/a> on Friday night. Now, it is on to Oklahoma City to face the No. 1-seeded Thunder starting Tuesday night. Will Luka Doncic<\/a> be available in the series?<\/p>\n

LeBron James Leads Lakers To Western Conference Semis for Just 3rd Time, Is Luka Doncic Returning Against OKC?<\/h2>\n

Trailing by five points midway through the first quarter, LA went on a 27-3 run over the subsequent 13 minutes of action to take a 38-19 lead and control of Game 6.\u00a0 The Lakers went on to cruise to a 98-78 victory as LeBron James<\/a> tossed in 28 points on 10 of 25 shooting from the field to go along with eight assists and seven rebounds.\u00a0 It is the first time since 2o23 that the Lakers have advanced to the second round.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us to be written off a few weeks ago and win a playoff series is a big deal,\u201d coach JJ Redick said after the gam<\/a>e.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It certainly wasn’t easy for the Lakers, but they did finally get the job done despite only having Austin Reaves<\/a> for the final two games and Doncic not playing at all. Four of the six games were decided by single digits. Only one contest saw both teams hit the century mark.<\/p>\n

Overall, the Lakers outscored the Rockets 101.2 -98.7 in the series. The Lakers, the second-best shooting team in the league, connected on 47.8% of their field goal attempts for the series, and 38.6% of their 3-pointers. The Lakers did a good job on the boards against the Rockets, the NBA’s top rebounding team, as both teams finished with 41.5 boards a game.\u00a0 However, turnovers were an issue, as they averaged 17.5 per contest.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Erik Williams-Imagn Images via Reuters<\/span><\/p>\n

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King James Is Back In The Second Round<\/h3>\n

James, who has now reached the second round of the NBA playoffs just three times in the last eight years, was superb against the Rockets. James’\u00a0 Game 6 performance last night marked his 157th career playoff game of at least 25 points, five rebounds, and five assists. According to ESPN’s Insights<\/a>, there are 84 more such games than the next closest player, Michael Jordan.<\/p>\n

James produced four 20-point games and had two double-doubles in the series. The 41-year-old finished with 23.2 points, 8.3 assists, and 7.2 rebounds. James also knocked down 1.5 threes a game with shooting splits of 43.2\/30.0\/73.9.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m kicking [Father Time\u2019s] ass,” James said in his postgame interview<\/a> on Prime. “He can go to somebody else at this point. He already lost to me. It\u2019s over with.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While James was the catalyst for the Lakers<\/a> in the series, he certainly didn’t do it himself.\u00a0 Rui Hachimura<\/a>, who tallied 21 points in Game 6, totaled a career-playoff high 15.8 points and 2.8 threes while shooting 54.3% from the field and 58.6% from deep during the series. Reeves followed his 22-point effort in Game 5 with a more efficient 15-point and three-block outing in Game 6.<\/p>\n

DeAndre Ayton<\/a> recorded a double-double in four of the six games, posting 33 combined rebounds in Games 5 and 6. Ayton also did a superb job defensively on Alperen Sengun. Marcus Smart<\/a> and Luke Kennard<\/a> also contributed on both ends of the floor throughout the series.<\/p>\n

Speaking of defense, LA was fantastic overall. The Lakers held the Rockets to under 100 points on four occassions. The Lakers limited the Rockets to 41% shooting shooting from the field and 30% from the 3-point line. They recorded 6.7 blocks and held the Rockets to 57.3% shooting within six feet of the rim, which is fourth best in the first round.<\/p>\n

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Lakers Head To Oklahoma City<\/h3>\n

Los Angeles will likely travel to Oklahoma City<\/a> on Monday, with their series starting on Tuesday night. OKC was the best team in the NBA all season long and wasted little time with Phoenix. The Thunder were the only team to sweep their first round, winning the four games by an average margin of 17.3 points.\u00a0 They scored 119 points across all four games and won three by at least 12 points.<\/p>\n

OKC was the top offensive team in the league and the fourth-best shooting squad. The Thunder also ranked fifth in rebounding and eighth in defensive rating. Additionally, the Thunder are the league’s deepest team.<\/p>\n

OKC has dominated Los Angeles the past two years.\u00a0 The Thunder have won six of the last seven matchups against the Lakers, including five straight. The Thunder have won the four previous matchups this season, averaging 29 points per game and shooting 50% from the field.\u00a0 Seven Thunder players averaged double-figures this season against the Lakers, led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who contributed 27.7 points on 55.5% shooting and 8.0 assists in just 29 minutes a game.<\/p>\n

When Could Luka Doncic Return?<\/h4>\n

The Thunder could also get Jalen Williams<\/a> back. Williams missed the Thunder’s final two games against the Suns due to a left hamstring strain. Tuesday will mark two weeks since Williams went down with the injury. So, expect Williams to be listed as questionable for Game 1 unless he experiences a setback between now and Monday night. If Williams does return in Game 1, expect him to be on a minutes restriction.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile,\u00a0 the news is as promising for Doncic and the Lakers. According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst<\/a> on SportsCenter this morning, Doncic is not close to returning. Doncic is reportedly not even running<\/a>, despite already missing a month of action, as he suffered the injury on April 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no idea how Luka\u2019s going to be 14 days from now,\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/em>Windhorst said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u201cMost likely, you\u2019re not going to see Luka Doncic at the front end of this series, maybe at least for another week to 10 days on the minimum.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

After Tuesday, the Lakers and Thunder will play every other day. So, given what is known and what Windhorst said, Doncic almost assuredly will miss the first four games. Therefore, the earliest Doncic is likely to return to the court is Game 5 on May 13. The team will have a brief break between Game 5 and Game 6, as that contest is scheduled for May 16. If the series goes the distance, the final game is slated for May 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Lakers have advanced to the Western Conference semifinals for the first time in three seasons after eliminating the pesky Houston Rockets on Friday night. Now, it is on to Oklahoma City to face the No. 1-seeded Thunder starting Tuesday night. Will Luka Doncic be available in the series? LeBron James Leads Lakers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":193801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,2,31,26,62,3,22],"tags":[50432,1419,4609,38,1133,4745,1749],"class_list":["post-193738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-featured","category-rockets","category-lakers","category-nba","category-news","category-thunder","tag-2026-nba-playoffs","tag-deandre-ayton","tag-jalen-williams","tag-lebron-james","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba-injuries","tag-rui-hachimura"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193738"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193812,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193738\/revisions\/193812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}