LeBron James is back in the Los Angeles Lakers’ lineup after a lengthy 14-game absence.
While James didn’t set the nets on fire during his season debut with the Lakers (11 points), he was highly effective as a passer in the Lakers’ 140-126 win over the Utah Jazz, dishing out 12 assists in 30 minutes.
Still, despite the Lakers’ impressive 14-point home win, USA Today’s Lorenzo Reyes believes that Los Angeles may have a concerning James and Luka Doncic problem in late-November.
"But – and the sample size is so small that it’s almost unfair to assess Los Angeles in its first game at full health – a potential concern emerged in the victory: the Lakers, by and large, struggled Tuesday night when both James and Luka Doncic were on the floor,” Reyes wrote Wednesday.
“What’s most interesting was that Los Angeles did particularly well when one of James or Doncic was off the floor – regardless of whom it was.”
“Take Tuesday night’s on/off numbers: in the stretches when both Doncic and James played together, the Lakers posted a net score of -11.”
“Yet, when Doncic was on the floor without James, that number ballooned to +17. Similarly, when James was on the floor without Doncic, the Lakers also outscored Utah by 17.”
Considering James and Doncic appeared on the hardwood together for the first time this season on Tuesday night, it’s going to take time for the two superstars to land on the same page.
With James suffering an injury toward the end of the 2024-25 campaign, the 21-time All-Star didn’t receive ample time to build chemistry with Doncic, and James’ most recent setback helped make things worse.
With time, it’s reasonable to assume that James and Doncic will have zero issues co-existing in Los Angeles, even if it requires James to embrace a demotion on the offensive end.
Simply put, while Reyes’ concerns are valid, it’s far too early to declare that two top-20 players won’t be able to figure it out alongside one another going forward.
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