LeBron james has played over 1,900 games in the regular season and postseason combined over his illustrious 23-year career, and has seen just about everything. But he’ll be in unfamiliar territory in Game 1 tonight at the Oklahoma City Thunder, as his Los Angeles Lakers enter as a 15.5-point underdog. It will be the biggest underdog that James has ever been in a game in his career – regular season or postseason.
The short-handed Los Angeles Lakers finished off the Houston Rockets in their 2026 NBA Playoffs first-round series on Friday night with a resounding 98-78 win in Game 6 to take the series 4-2. Without Austin Reaves for part of the series and Luka Dončić for all the series, the Lakers entered as big +425 underdogs against the Rockets. But Kevin Durant didn’t play in five of the six games due to a variety of injuries, Reaves came back and James carried Los Angeles to the playoff series victory.
Unfortunately, the No. 1 seed Thunder – after a 4-0 sweep of the No. 8 seed Phoenix Suns – have been waiting for Los Angeles.
The lakers are currently +950 underdogs in the series against the Thunder, which is the biggest playoff underdog the Lakers have been at this point in the playoffs as a franchise since at least 1988 – as far back as the Sports Odds History database goes. It’s the second-biggest underdog a James-led team has been in a playoff series. The largest was all the way back in 2006 – James’ first year in the postseason – when the Cleveland Cavaliers were 12-1 underdogs against the Detroit Pistons in the second round of the playoffs.
The Pistons won that series in seven games. The previous biggest underdog a James-led team had been was back in Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals, when James’ Cavaliers were 12.5-point underdogs and lost 124-114 in overtime to the Golden State Warriors – also known as the J. R. Smith Game. It doesn’t help matters that the Thunder beat the Lakers all four times this season, with three of the wins coming by at least 29 points.
Can Los Angeles pull off a historic upset? We’ll get some answers when Game 1 of the series tips off at 8:30 p.m. ET tonight.
