The collateral of being a big-market franchise is already being felt by the new-look Lakers after the release of the 2026–27 NBA regular-season schedule. Analysts are pointing out sharply contrasting realities for two Western Conference contenders. While the co-title favorite Oklahoma City Thunder project to have the league’s easiest strength of schedule according to ESPN analysis, Jovan Buha highlighted a demanding late-season stretch for the Los Angeles Lakers that features heavy travel and matchups against elite Western Conference competition, warning that it will help determine the Luka Doncic era’s ceiling.

Buha spotlighted a crucial six-game measuring stick for the Lakers through a grueling late-season road trip that concludes in Oklahoma City before Doncic & Co. return home to host the San Antonio Spurs. That sequence, Miami, Cleveland, Houston, Memphis, and Oklahoma City on the road, followed by a home date against San Antonio, packs quality opponents and significant travel into a short window late in the year. Buha emphasized that these matchups against the two Western Conference title-favorites will reveal whether the Lakers are true championship contenders or merely a high-seeded regular-season team destined for an early exit.

“I will go late into the season where the Lakers play, they have a five-game road trip where they close out at OKC,” Buha explained on his YouTube show. “The last game of a road trip is always really difficult. Especially, you look at this trip, they go Miami, Cleveland, Houston, Memphis, OKC… you are doing a lot of travel there… All those teams project to be really good. So like that, that’s a tough road trip. You close it out at OKC, you come back, then you host San Antonio three days later. So those two games are going to be massive in terms of how do the Lakers stack up against the two best teams in the league.”

Buha’s description of the travel load and the caliber of those opponents frames the stretch as a genuine test that stands in clear contrast to the Thunder’s comparatively lighter overall schedule.

Buha circled the head-to-head record against OKC and San Antonio as the definitive preview of LA’s trajectory.

“I just view that as like those six games to me matter far more than almost anything else because that to me will be the measuring stick of how does LA match up with the top of the West, the top of the league,” Buha noted.

Those games against the projected conference standard-bearers give the stretch its weight and help explain why it has drawn particular attention, alongside OKC’s easiest strength-of-schedule designation.

He very grimly added that no matter win-loss record the Lakers have on this road trip, “It kind of doesn’t matter because you’re probably going to lose or almost certainly will lose in round two against those two.”

While the Victor Wembanyama-led Spurs are strong favorites fresh off their trip to the Finals, most predict a Western Conference Finals rematch with OKC. If the Lakers pull an upset, it would truly prove Rob Pelinka’s gamble this season paid off.

Teams like the Lakers and Warriors face a very hectic combination of road games and back-to-backs. ESPN rates OKC as having the easiest strength of schedule for the 2026–27 campaign.

OKC faces only 13 back-to-back sets and features seven distinct homestands of three or more games across 30 nationally televised games.

The Lakers, by comparison, must navigate denser stretches of travel and high-level competition, including the late-season sequence Buha flagged.

Led by reigning 2x MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, this is a team that’s fortunate to not have to play against themselves. Their biggest obstacle is literally a 7’4″ Alien.

The Lakers must navigate a far more precarious landscape. Last season, they went 25–16 on the road and 3-2 without rest. Yet Buha accurately noted that both OKC and Spurs represent the standard for the entire West for “at least the next three seasons, if not longer.”

For LA, it won’t be Doncic, Austin Reaves, and the new core’s early performance, but the late-season consistency during punishing road stretches and holding their ground against the standard-bearers of the West will be the barometer for a compelling conference race.