It’s finally playoff time in the NBA. The Boston Celtics will start their climb towards Banner 19 on Sunday afternoon, when they host the winner of Wednesday’s Philadelphia 76ers vs. Orlando Magic Play-In Game.
Fans in Boston have gone all-in on this Celtics team. Skeptics have turned into believers over the past six months and now hope to see the Cs emerge from the Eastern Conference and potentially win another title.
They’re not the only ones.
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Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James can be added to the list, too. On a recent episode of his Mind The Game podcast, the 41-year-old said he’d love an opportunity to match up with Boston in the NBA Finals.
“That’d be crazy,” he said. “I had a lot of Celtics series when I was in the East. They don’t quite like me either.”
The sentiment is understandable. James has a storied history with the Celtics, dating back to his Cleveland days. The battles with Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen defined an era. Adding a Lakers chapter to that rivalry would be a fitting capstone to his legendary career.
But as much as James would like to see a Celtics vs. Lakers matchup in June, it is just not happening.
The Lakers Are Not Serious Contenders
Los Angeles is not a serious contender to begin with. Sure, they had a fun run in March. That does not erase the several months of mediocre basketball they put together before that. At one point, they were fifth in the West despite having a point differential of zero—the definition of “mid.”
The Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, and Denver Nuggets all would have scoffed at the idea that the Lakers would emerge from the West, even during their meaningless March hot streak. Never mind now that both Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are sidelined with respective hamstring and oblique injuries.
L.A. enters its first-round series against the Houston Rockets as a +450 underdog. To be clear, the Rockets (who finished the season strong) are not considered one of the West’s powerhouse teams, either.
The odds speak to how, without Doncic or Reaves, LeBron and the Lakers have no business even thinking about the NBA Finals. They would be lucky to be playing in May.
The February Meeting: A Preview of What Could Have Been
With all of this being said, if by some miracle the Celtics saw them in June, Mayor Wu would be wise to begin planning a parade. When the two teams met back in February, both at full strength at Crypto.com Arena, Boston broke the Lakers’ spirit.
Luka was red in the face complaining at the officials, James was fed up with his teammates as always, and the rest of their guys had no answer for the Celtics. The game outlined the differences in depth and culture on both sides and showed why Boston clearly has the superior system.
The Celtics are deeper. They are more disciplined. They have a system that has been refined over years, not a collection of stars trying to figure it out on the fly.
The Rivalry: More Nostalgia Than Reality
Besides the laundry, a Lakers vs. Celtics Finals would be a big yawn. The rivalry that once defined the NBA—Bird vs. Magic, McHale vs. Rambis, Pierce vs. Kobe—is now a relic of a bygone era. Today’s Celtics and Lakers have no real history with each other. The players have changed. The stakes are different.
What remains is nostalgia. And nostalgia does not win championships.
The Verdict: A Dream That Will Remain a Dream
LeBron James can dream about a Celtics-Lakers Finals. The NBA’s marketing department can salivate over the ratings. But the reality is that the Lakers are not good enough to get there.
They are injured. They are inconsistent. They are a play-in team that backed into the playoffs.
The Celtics, by contrast, are the second seed in the East. They have depth, chemistry, and a system that works. They are built for a deep run.
Could the Lakers pull off a miracle? Could LeBron summon one more vintage performance and carry his team to the Finals?
Stranger things have happened. But this is not 2018. LeBron is 41. His co-stars are hurt. And the Western Conference is a gauntlet.
The Celtics and Lakers will not meet in June. The NBA can market the rivalry all it wants. But the product on the court will not deliver.
LeBron wants it. The fans might want it. But it is never happening.
And that is just the reality of the 2026 NBA playoffs.