Editor’s Note: Read more NBA coverage from The Athletic here. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its teams.
***
NEW ORLEANS — Not that it’s unusual to see LeBron James bristle at the criticisms pointed his way, but this one seemed to really confuse him.
After the Los Angeles Lakers traded for Luka Dončić, people around the NBA and in the media felt James couldn’t work with the Slovenian star. The two possessed too many overlapping skills that required the basketball in their hands. And would James, the face of the team, really move to the side for a player who would change the Lakers’ priorities from maximizing James’ final years to building for a future without him?
“I just don’t think people watch basketball,” James said Tuesday in New Orleans.
Was he not the same player who went to Miami and figured out the ways to make it work with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh? Did he not do the same in Cleveland with Kyrie Irving? And with the Lakers and Anthony Davis? And, even in the month or so before the trade for Dončić, had James not ceded the ball to Austin Reaves?
After he and Dončić each scored 30 points in the Lakers’ 111-103 win against the New Orleans Pelicans, James again made it clear there were no pecking order concerns in his locker room.
“Luka don’t need to bend his game,” James said. “Luka is our (26-year-old) franchise for this ballclub. He don’t need to bend this game. It’s up to us to bend our game around him and figure it out.”
The reality is, though, that the best partnerships aren’t one-sided. And after the win, Dončić said he, too, is getting more comfortable with the ways James wants to attack.
In the second quarter Thursday, James cut along the baseline and caught a ceiling-scraping lob from Dončić, the two adding to their growing highlight reel together. Later in the night, in the final seconds of a broken possession, Dončić slipped around James to heave in a 31-footer, James and Dončić celebrating the dagger together.
“I love what’s happening right now with Luka and LeBron and that partnership,” coach JJ Redick said after the win. “There’s some real synergy happening right now, and it’s fun to watch.”
The Lakers are now 7-0 this season when James and Dončić each score at least 25 points. The pair became the fourth duo in the league this season to finish a game with at least 30 points and eight assists each, with three of Dončić’s 10 assists going to James (who finished with eight).
“He’s been absolutely amazing. Just helping me out, helping others out, being super efficient on the field goals,” Dončić said of James. “But yeah, that’s Bron. He can do anything. Just really appreciate him. Like I said, when we’re out there, I think we’re both — we are playing better with each other, game by game. And this is just going to be improving more.”
The Lakers have played just eight games this season with James, Dončić and Reaves after the three played in just 21 games together last year.
“The one thing that I was hoping to get was like a full summer of me being able to train, and then me, Luka, AR to get a full training camp, full preseason … we can now lock in and go off what we finished last year,” James said. “And because of my injury, I wasn’t able to get that. So, put us behind the eight ball.”
With James out, Reaves and Dončić’s chemistry on and off the court surged. The injury to Reaves on Christmas, which is going to keep him off the court at least four weeks, has provided an opportunity for Dončić and James to get more on the same page out of necessity as much as anything.
“Just a little bit of everything,” Dončić said of the ways he and James have gotten more comfortable. “I would say, probably understanding better what we want for each other. Me understanding what he wants, him understanding what I want.”
Though they understand and respect what the other is capable of, real strides are being made toward the two of them complementing one another.
Tuesday, the Lakers’ miserable 3-point shooting (of which Dončić was a major part) and a few key mistakes forced the Lakers to play from behind in the second half. With Dončić resting, James opened the quarter with a pair of 3s sandwiched around an assist to Jarred Vanderbilt, a stretch that flipped the game for the Lakers. With New Orleans pushing in the final four minutes, Dončić hit a pair of difficult 3s to finish them off, landing a one-two punch against the Pelicans on their home court.
The pair did it on the ball. They did it off the ball. It’s the kind of performance Redick can reference as the Lakers figure out how to use their best players, Reaves included, to create advantages that might overcome the team’s most glaring flaws.
“I just think it takes a lot — a lot — to win in the regular season. I think it takes even more to win in the playoffs and win a championship. The thing that it starts with is top-end talent, and we have that,” Redick said. “Those three guys are stars. And I think being able to use them in different ways … them embracing being off-ball some, being screeners sometimes. They’re naturally going to want the ball in their hands and play pick-and-roll or will want the ball in their hands in the post or the iso, but them being open to playing in a myriad of ways has been really good for us.”
— James Jackson contributed to this story.
***
Dan Woike covers the Los Angeles Lakers for The Athletic. He’s written about professional basketball in Los Angeles since 2011, first for the Orange County Register and most recently for the Los Angeles Times. His work has been recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors, the Pro Basketball Writers Association, the Los Angeles Press Club and the California News Publishers Association. He’s originally from Chicago. Follow Dan on Twitter @DanWoikeSports
