At the All-Star break, the Los Angeles Lakers find themselves in an unexpected but undeniably intriguing spot: fifth in the Western Conference with a 33-21 record. Given the chaos they’ve endured through the first 54 games - including extended absences from their three biggest stars - that’s not just impressive, it’s borderline improbable.
Let’s start with the availability issues. LeBron James missed the first 14 games of the season and has been sidelined for 18 overall.
Luka Dončić, currently leading the league in scoring at 32.8 points per game, sat out the final four games before the break with a left hamstring strain. And Austin Reaves?
He’s averaging a scorching 25.4 points per game, but calf injuries have kept him out of 26 games and limited his minutes in several others. He hasn’t logged 30 minutes in a game since December 10 and hasn’t started since Christmas Day.
Despite all that, the Lakers are not just surviving - they’re thriving. Head coach JJ Redick summed it up after a dominant 124-104 win over Dallas: “Top five in the West and those guys have played 10 games. You take that.”
But the Lakers’ story isn’t just about staying afloat without their stars. It’s about how they’ve done it.
They’re one of just 10 teams in the league to win at least 60 percent of their games heading into the break - the kind of pace that projects to a 50-win season over 82 games. Yet, here’s the twist: they’ve been outscored by one point overall this season.
That’s not just unusual - it’s historically rare. In the 30 years of the play-by-play era (excluding the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season), 245 teams have entered the All-Star break with a .600 or better win percentage. Only three - including this year’s Lakers - have done it with a negative point differential.
The other two? The 2021 Trail Blazers and the 1997 Hornets.
Both had solid records at the break but fizzled in the first round of the playoffs. That’s not the company the Lakers want to keep, but it does underscore just how much of an outlier this team is.
Here’s where things get even more fascinating: the Lakers are 15-3 in clutch-time games - the best mark in the league. Every other team has lost at least nine such games.
That’s a testament to their composure, execution, and trust in late-game moments. But it’s also a bit of a double-edged sword.
They’ve played the fewest clutch-time games in the league and are just 16-18 in games decided by 10 points or more. In other words, they’re just as likely to get blown out as they are to win a nail-biter.
That inconsistency is reflected in their efficiency numbers. Offensively, they’re solid - 11th in the league at 116.3 points per 100 possessions.
But defensively, they’re struggling. They rank 23rd in defensive efficiency, allowing 116.6 points per 100 possessions.
Among teams with winning records, only Denver ranks lower on defense - and the Nuggets offset that with the league’s best offense.
The Lakers don’t have that luxury.
And while the return of Dončić, LeBron, and Reaves should, in theory, stabilize things, the early returns on their trio haven’t been overwhelmingly positive. The Lakers are 7-3 when all three play, which sounds great - until you dig deeper.
In their 152 shared minutes, the Lakers have been outscored by 26 points. They’re scoring just 107.9 points per 100 possessions in that time, while allowing 117.5.
Now, Redick has said he prefers to evaluate lineups after they’ve logged at least 250 minutes together, so it’s still early. But the fit between the stars is something to watch.
There are some encouraging signs. Dončić and Reaves have been a strong pairing, outscoring opponents by 70 points in 466 minutes - the best two-man combo involving Dončić this season.
But Dončić and LeBron are a minus-66 in 680 minutes, and LeBron and Reaves are minus-36 in 331 minutes together. The chemistry is still a work in progress.
As for Reaves, he’s embracing whatever role the team needs. After dishing out 8 assists off the bench in a recent game against the Warriors, he was asked whether he’d be open to a sixth-man role for the rest of the season. His answer was simple: “I’ll do whatever coach tells me to do.”
That kind of buy-in matters, especially on a team still figuring itself out. And Reaves believes the Lakers are building something meaningful.
“Everybody cares for one another,” he said. “Everybody wants to see the other person succeed.
When you have that, statistics don’t matter. It’s just what can we do to win a basketball game.
And I believe you’re really dangerous when you’re playing like that, because you’re going to have multiple people end up winning you games.”
There’s still a long way to go. The Lakers have bought themselves time with their record - time to get healthy, find defensive consistency, and sort out their best lineups. But whether they can turn this statistical anomaly into a deep playoff run will depend on how quickly those pieces come together.
For now, they’re in the mix. And given everything they’ve been through, that alone is worth taking seriously.