How Can the Lakers Close the Gap Between Them, San Antonio and Oklahoma City?

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers · May 19, 2026 · 37m

The Lakers -- and every other team in the West and the NBA more broadly -- have a problem. As we all saw in Game 1 of the Conference Finals Monday between the Thunder and San Antonio, these are two teams that are not only incredibly good right now, they're poised to stay incredibly good for a while. Or even continue to get better. (Wemby, Steph Castle and Dylan Harper are 22, 21 and 20, respectively.)

So what does that mean for the Lakers?

Well, first of all, it puts a ton of pressure on Rob Pelinka, who knows he has a big gap to make up to make the Lakers true title contenders. He has to…