Through eight games, the Los Angeles Lakers are playing at a level that hasn't been seen in 54 years. Hyperbolic as that may seem, the current Lakers squad is firing on all cylinders with six different players already exceeding 20 points in at least one outing.
Considering the last team to achieve that feat won a championship, it's safe for fans to believe Los Angeles is a true contender in 2025-26.
The Lakers are off to an excellent start, going 6-2 despite playing each of their first eight games without LeBron James. Los Angeles has also played four games without Luka Doncic and one sans Austin Reaves, which has forced the supporting cast to step up—and step up they have.
According to Kevin Pelton of ESPN, Los Angeles made history by becoming the first team since the 1971-72 Lakers to have six 20-point scorers within their first eight games.
"The Lakers have had six different players score at least 25 points in a game this season. Per ESPN Research, the 1971-72 Lakers, who went 69-13 and won the NBA championship, are the only other team with so many 25-point scorers in their first eight games."
Considering the Lakers are still awaiting the return of the NBA's all-time leading scorer, it's safe to start wondering if a championship is a realistic goal.
Lakers first since '72 champs with six 20+ scorers in first eight games
Doncic has set the world ablaze by averaging 41.3 points and 8.3 assists per game through his first four appearances. Reaves hasn't been all that far behind at 31.1 points and 9.3 assists per contest through seven appearances.
With both battling their share of injuries, however, Deandre Ayton, Rui Hachimura, Jake LaRavia, and Nick Smith Jr. have all scored at least 20 points in a game this season.
What makes that fact so incredible is that the Lakers don't just have a surplus of 20-point scorers. Ayton, Doncic, Hachimura, LaRavia, Reaves, and Smith have all scored at least 25 points in a game this season—a figure LaRavia has twice exceeded.
Ayton, meanwhile, has two games with at least 22 points thus far, while Hachimura has two with at least 23 and Smith posted 25 in just 27 minutes.
Los Angeles also has Dalton Knecht, who posted two 30-point games as a rookie in 2024-25. It's even received respectable offensive contributions from Marcus Smart, who's averaging 9.2 points per game through his first six outings with the Lakers.
That brings the tally to eight players who can consistently put points on the board, with the ninth being perhaps the most intriguing of all: LeBron James.
James has yet to play a game this season, but his status as the NBA's all-time leading scorer, as well as a former scoring champion, speaks volumes. In 22 completed seasons, he's never averaged fewer than 20.9 points per game—and the 24.4 he posted in 2024-25 marked his lowest average since his rookie season in 2003-04.
With the equivalent of two starting lineups worth of respectable scoring threats, the Lakers are in a unique position to dominate offensively without relying too heavily on any one player.