The difficulty level surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers' championship dreams for the 2025-26 NBA season was always going to be steep.

The Los Angeles Lakers were dealt a major setback on Sunday as superstar Luka Dončić was diagnosed with a sprained left finger and lower leg contusion that will keep him sidelined for at least a week, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.

After Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Reddick revealed LeBron James is close to making a return for his regular-season debut, Hall of Fame forward and ESPN analyst Charles Barkley downplayed his injury due to sciatica. For Barkley, it's the Lakers' nice way of giving James time to adapt to his older figure.

The NBA's in-season tournament returns for its third year. The Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks won the last two tournaments, and with over $500,000 for each player on the winning team on the line, it's certainly something several of the game's biggest stars will show out for.

The Los Angeles Lakers announced on Thursday that superstar LeBron James will be re-evaluated in three-to-four weeks due to sciatica on his right side.

It’s Halloween, and the NBA Cup tips off on Friday with eight games on the schedule. The action for these games is sure to be exhilarating. Let’s take a deeper look at some of these matchups and go over our top NBA picks & predictions for Friday.