OKLAHOMA CITY — It’s one thing to win a trade. It’s another to win a championship.
Nico Harrison’s firing this week was the official punctuation on something that’s long been true, that the Lakers’ future unquestionably changed on Feb. 1, 2025, when they traded for Luka Dončić.
Since that night, the Lakers have started a climb back toward legitimate contention and through 11 games to begin this season, they’d made some positive ground. But after 48 minutes Wednesday night in Oklahoma City, it’s obvious that they’re nowhere near the summit. And the gap between where the Lakers are at now and where the Thunder can go could be still widening.
Oklahoma City, fresh off dismantling the Golden State Warriors 126-102 Tuesday, steamrolled the Lakers, 121-92, on the second night of a back-to-back and without starters Jalen Williams and Lu Dort.
“To be blunt, they beat the s– out of us tonight,” Lakers guard Austin Reaves said. “And there’s a lot of basketball to be played. We feel as if we can get to that level. Just tonight, we (weren’t) anywhere close to that.”
Who let this dog out? 😤 pic.twitter.com/Gd9MDCb3NL
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) November 13, 2025
Wednesday was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 85th-straight game with at least 20 points. The reigning Most Valuable Player was the most unstoppable force on the court, driving Oklahoma City to its 12th win in 13 games — a pace that would have them north of 75 wins. He scored 30 points and didn’t play a second in the fourth quarter — the seventh time this season he hasn’t needed to touch the floor in the final 12 minutes.
The Thunder held Dončić to just 19 points and Reaves to 13, both season lows. Postgame, both players took responsibility for the loss.
Dončić’s rough night came on the heels of Dallas firing the man who traded him to Los Angeles, Harrison. Earlier in the day, Maxi Kleber, who was also in the trade, noted that for players, coaches and executives, the NBA was a “fast business.”
Reacting publicly for the first time to the news, Dončić said his focus was now fully on the Lakers.
“The city of Dallas, the fans, the players, they’ll always have a special place in my heart. I thought I was going to stay there forever, but I didn’t,” he said. “So, that will always be a special place for me. I will always call it home. But right now I’m focused on the Lakers and trying to move on. But obviously, always there will be a part of me there. But just trying to move on and focus on what I’m doing here.”
That focus, now, is to get the Lakers into the same stratosphere as Oklahoma City.
Critics poked at how calmly the Thunder reacted to the team’s first NBA championship in Oklahoma City last summer. But 13 games into this season, there are no signs of any title hangover. Lakers players and staff marveled at how hungry Oklahoma City seemed Wednesday, a team that already proved it was the best on a sprint to prove it resoundingly again.
One mismatch in a game full of them stood out as most related to that edge.
The Lakers were playing the Thunder but the Thunder were playing something bigger, competing against an unreal standard that they set last season and seem completely capable of surpassing.
You could see it in a tightly executed out-of-bounds play in the second quarter with the lead already over 30. You could see it early in the second half when Gilgeous-Alexander frustratedly raised his hands to the sweatband on his forehead after missing a wide-open 3 with his team up 76-41.
“He’s a killer,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said of Gilgeous-Alexander.
For the Lakers, it’s their second loss in three games. Dončić pointed to their energy and physicality as the primary reasons why they’ve stumbled through the first three games of this five-game road trip.
“I think you have to look big picture and then have to look with where your team is at right now. And I don’t think it’s been a great road trip for us, just in terms of how we played,” he said. “Second half against Charlotte, I liked everything that I saw. But the Atlanta game [and] tonight, I don’t think are reflective of who the group is going to be. But it clearly is who the group is right now. And so we’ve got to course correct.”
Wednesday, the gaps between the two teams were glaring, even as both missed important pieces. Maybe LeBron James makes up that difference. But for now, the Lakers were left looking up at the best team in basketball still on their ascent.
”I think it’s not concerning. I think it’s more of a big motivation,” Doncic said. “Like I said, they were the champions for a reason and it’s a big motivation. They started the year even better, I think so. It’s a big motivation to see how they play and try to stop them.”
