The Los Angeles Lakers entered Wednesday in fourth place in the Western Conference with a 32-19 record. However, they are now an entirely different team after the blockbuster trade that landed Luka Doncic in Los Angeles at the cost of Anthony Davis. It is debatable if the trade made the Lakers better-suited to win a title this season, even if they are clearly set to build around Doncic for the next decade; as the loss of Davis’s defense may not be offset by Doncic’s offensive wizardry.

ESPN’s numbers, however, think very highly of the Lakers’ big name acquisition. On Wednesday’s edition of Get Up Mike Greenberg revealed ESPN’s analytics give LeBron James’s squad the second-highest percentage in the West to make the NBA Finals, behind only the first-place Oklahoma City Thunder. Specifically, the network’s statistical model gives the Lakers a 12% chance to emerge from the Western Conference playoff bracket.

As he was explaining this to the Get Up panel Brian Windhorst chimed in with a savage line that reflects what he thinks of those numbers.

“You’re seeing ESPN analytics. Only the Thunder have a better chance to make the Western Conference finals, and we had a graphic a moment ago that said the Lakers have the second-best chance, according to our analytics, to make it to the NBA Finals from the West behind only Oklahoma City,” Greenberg explained.

“The computer doesn’t have to defend Nikola Jokic,” Windhorst responded dryly.

It seems Windhorst might be frustrated with all the Lakers talk if this interaction paired with his brutal roasting of Stephen A. Smith on Tuesday is any indication.

It’s a pretty good point, though. The Lakers have been tortured by Jokic in two consecutive postseasons, getting swept by the MVP big man in the 2023 conference finals and losing in five games in the first round last season. In those two series Jokic averaged 28.0 points, 15.4 rebounds, and 10.6 assists per game— with Davis, an annual Defensive Player of the Year candidate, guarding him. How are the Lakers going to stop him now that their center rotation consists of career backups Alex Len and Jaxson Hayes?

There’s a lot of season left to be played but the Lakers have clear holes in their roster with little recourse to address them. Even the combined greatness of LeBron and Luka may struggle to overcome such obstacles.