Angry fans in mid-season form after home defeat to Warriors

The Los Angeles Lakers they will always have to lighten up in 2025-26 given how many new pieces they will have to integrate around Luka Doncic. The situation is aggravated by the fact that LeBron James is out indefinitely with a back injury — making it difficult for the Lakers to start the season at an ideal point.

The Lakers showed a lot of fight against the Golden State Warriors. Doncic, as usual, was phenomenalwho finished with 43 points, nine rebounds and 12 assists as he was the only one the Lakers could count on to consistently create offense for most of the night. But it wasn’t enough, as the Warriors shut them down in the third quarter and the Purple and Gold couldn’t recover en route to a 119-109 loss.

An 0-1 start to the season is far from the worst outcome for any team. It’s very early for the Lakers anyway, and things should get better, especially as new pieces like Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart become more comfortable in their new roles.

But Lakers fans expect, nay, demand the best from their team on any given night, and suffice it to say, they weren’t at their best Tuesday night against the Warriors.

“I know it’s only one game, but the Lakers don’t look anywhere close to fighting, and please Marcus Smart, enough of the craziness, LA doesn’t need a sideshow,” X user @LibraSongMan wrote.

“The Lakers can win 50+ games this season, which doesn’t matter in the playoffs if we’re not elite defensively.” @Lakerschipp further.

“JJ is going to have an aneurysm from this,” @LakersLead he added.

“Pelkin’s brains are full of bugs if he thought this roster was going to be improved just by adding Ayton,” @bil_cipher expressed.

Can the 2025 Lakers channel the spirit of the 2022 Mavericks?

This 2025 Lakers roster seems uncannily similar to the Doncic-led 2022 Mavericks team that reached the Western Conference Finals. It’s Doncic’s heliocentric show backed up by another borderline All-Star (Austin Reeves), with the rest of the team looking to play a supporting role — knocking down open threes, defending like hell on the perimeter and rebounding.

That 2022 Mavs team treaded water until January; from that point on, Dallas went 35-12 and earned the fourth seed in the West at 52-30. There’s a chance this Lakers team can endure a slow start but eventually take off, provided LeBron James gets back healthy and Ayton gets his act together.