Former Lakers Star Makes Bold Claim About LA's Ceiling This Season

With 26 regular-season games to go during the 2025-26 campaign, there are a lot of questions surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers and how far this team, led by the star trio of Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and LeBron James, can go once the NBA playoffs get underway on April 18.

Although the Lakers are sitting in fifth place in the Western Conference with a 34-22 record, they are a flawed team, especially on defense, which could be their undoing in the postseason.

Carmelo Anthony Thinks Lakers Can Reach Western Conference Finals

Ahead of Sunday’s game against the Boston Celtics, former Lakers star Carmelo Anthony gave his opinion on what he feels is the ceiling for Los Angeles this season.

“We talk about the Lakers' ceiling,” Anthony said. “To me, I think they have a shot at a legit Western Conference Finals run. When you talk about their firepower, star power wins games in the playoffs, right?

“So they have the star power. Now it's about their defense. Can they get their defense back to being an above-average defensive team? If they can do that with the big three and offensive power that they have, the way they close games out in clutch game situations is very special. So the Lakers' ceiling, to me, could be that Western Conference finals run.”

If the blowout loss to the Celtics without Jayson Tatum was any indication, the Lakers aren’t ready to contend with the best of the best in the NBA right now. Los Angeles was at full strength and still couldn’t keep up with Jaylen Brown and company, who came out on top by 22 points, crushing the Lakers on their home floor of Crypto.com Arena.

James Worthy Blasts Lakers for Lack of Effort vs. Celtics

Before the Lakers faced their arch-rivals on Sunday, the storied franchise unveiled a bronze statue of legendary head coach Pat Riley, with most of his Showtime Lakers in attendance for the ceremony.

However, Boston came ready to play and blew out Doncic and company with relative ease, which sparked quite a reaction from James Worthy on Spectrum SportsNet.

“No heart,” Worthy said of the Lakers’ effort. “Weak. … To me, there is no respect for this uniform.”

“They've got to decide who they want to be because right now, I'm not sure. They're a good team. I'm not taking that away from them. They're a good team. They got a lot of offensive power. But until they decide, I'm a little biased because it's the Celtics. And it was Pat Riley's statue unveiling. Just to come out like that at home was just tough to watch.”

If the Lakers don't figure out a way to compete with the elite teams in the league in the final stretch, the team could be in danger of another early playoff exit.