The Los Angeles Lakers are suddenly going through it. And if choosing when to “go through it” was offered, they would choose any other time than now.
Just 72 hours ago, the Lakers were the talk of basketball for all the right reasons.
Luka Doncic was playing out of his mind, Austin Reaves was playing his way into a massive contract and LeBron James was playing like he had a beef with retirement.
Then that night, L.A. met the defending champs, and they said heck no. No to allowing jump shots, points, rebounds, steals … everything. The Lakers looked flat and defeated from tipoff. A couple of quarters later, the look on their faces told you the season was over.
Doncic went down with a Grade 2 hamstring strain, and we are now learning that Reaves was also hurt that game, causing an oblique strain.
Just like that, two of your best players are down and going to be out for a while.
Before the Thunder game, the Lakers won 15 of their last 17 games and began to mount a bigger cushion between them and the fourth-seed.
Now L.A. has an injury crisis as it scrambles to figure out what’s next.
Retired Los Angeles Lakers big man has a solution
L.A. saw its championship hopes soaring as the wins piled up. Suddenly, the hopes have been drained out.
The Lakers are left with the 41-year-old James captaining the ship.
Sure, if this was 2018 and James had Cleveland written across his chest, maybe losing Doncic and Reaves wouldn’t have been all that bad. But James is coming off a significant offseason injury that resulted in a delayed start to his season.
Since Doncic’s arrival in a seismic trade 14 months ago, James has progressively shifted his role and has gotten quite used to it. To ask him to suddenly ramp up his minutes and usage, this late in the season, using those overused legs, is a tall request.
Of course, nothing is beyond the league’s all-time leading scorer. He is arguably the greatest basketball player ever and still capable of looking like a dominant force on any given night. But winning a championship without your two best players is almost impossible in professional sports.
So if you’re Dwight Howard, the retired center who won a championship with Los Angeles six years ago, now is the best time to scratch that itch to play again and get some burn, because the season seems about over anyway.
“Lmk if I need to come out retirement,” Howard, punctuating his post with an emoji, quipped on X.
Lmk if I need to come out retirement 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/OrLVsY4QTe
— Dwight Howard (@DwightHoward) April 4, 2026
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Howard’s time in L.A.
Howard spent three stints in L.A. over his Hall of Fame career, but only two of them are truly remembered.
One negatively and one positively.
Howard moved to the Lakers from the Orlando Magic in a blockbuster 2012 trade that formed an infamous Big Four with Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Steve Nash.
Not only did the Lakers fall mightily short of expectations, Howard also found it difficult to get along with Bryant, and many suspected his regressed play was a result of it.
The star center was traded again after just a couple of seasons, and no Laker fan could’ve imagined him back in the purple and gold.
Then came 2019.
Howard was a glorified journeyman at this point. He had seen several unceremonious stops between the time he left L.A. in 2013 to six years later.
The Lakers, now featuring James and Anthony Davis, gave Howard another chance and he fit wonderfully. He served as an excellent backup and made Los Angeles a dominant defensive team. By the end of the year, he was a champion for the first time and all his past shortcomings were forgiven.
Getty ImagesDwight Howard won a championship in the 2019-20 season with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Howard was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2025. He assembled one of the most impressive resumes for a big man in the modern era, winning three Defensive Player of Year awards and earning eight All-Star selections.
Hall of Fame ex-Laker Offers to Come Back Amid Team’s Injury Crisis