Bill Simmons has no idea what to make of the 2025-26 Los Angeles Lakers, who lost by 22 points to Simmons's beloved Boston Celtics at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday night.
In a new episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast with guest Zach Lowe, Simmons wondered aloud why the LeBron James-Luka Doncic-Austin Reaves trio still feels clumsy.
Bill Simmons doesn't like the look of the Lakers these days
"Now we're in March, and it still feels rocky and weird, and some of the body language stuff is weird," Simmons told Lowe, before embarking on a biting criticism of Deandre Ayton's entire identity as a basketball player.
But Ayton isn't the Lakers' biggest issue; defensive effort is, followed closely by a lack of team chemistry. And by the way, Simmons is far from alone in his diagnosis of LA's star trio lacking continuity.
Doncic himself acknowledged that he and his pair of star running mates need to work on improving their synergy.
The problem is, the Lakers are running out of time to do so. On that note, it might be wise for LA to stop worrying about officiating so much and start diving headfirst into addressing the team's weaknesses.
With 26 games left in the regular season, the Lakers don't have a massive testing period with which to iron out all of their flaws, but an inspiring run of hard-nosed basketball would at least give the team some momentum and belief heading into the postseason.
This really needs to start on Tuesday night at home against the Orlando Magic. Following the deflating Celtics loss that attracted scornful criticism from the national media, the Lakers need to bounce back in a big way and trounce the Magic before heading to Phoenix for a Thursday night showdown with the Dillon Brooks-less Suns.
Early to mid-March will bring a few "barometer" games for the Lakers: away at the Denver Nuggets on March 5, home against the New York Knicks on March 8, home against the Minnesota Timberwolves on March 10, home against Denver on March 14, and then back-to-back road games against the Houston Rockets on March 16 and 18.
By then, we'll know if the Lakers have kicked things into another gear to prepare for the playoffs or kicked the bucket on the season.
Ultimately, Simmons's ominous description of the Lakers doesn't bode well for their postseason performance. It's rare to see a team perform so inconsistently throughout most of the season, and then flip the switch in the playoffs.
The West is way too strong for anything but well-oiled machine teams to thrive when the games suddenly became way more important.