All eyes were on the Los Angeles Lakers as superstar Luka Doncic made his franchise debut on Monday night against the Utah Jazz. Doncic finished with 14 points, five rebounds and four assists in the Lakers win and he played just 24 minutes in his first game back from a calf strain suffered on Christmas Day.
Between the atmosphere in the building, a first game back from injury, and the overall pressure that comes with joining the Lakers, there was a lot on Doncic’s plate. But head coach JJ Redick believes he handled everything very well.
“I think he handled it well,” Redick said after the game. “Knowing Luka, whether he will admit it or not, there was probably a little bit of nerves playing for the Lakers for the first time and the anticipation that our fans had, this building had, his teammates had, our coaching staff had. He kind of gets that, he sees that.
“I thought he’s handled it really well and he played really well tonight. He could not make a 3 outside of the first one, but it just goes back to all our guys, he just played agenda-free basketball. He didn’t make it about Luka. He made it about playing good basketball and playing Laker basketball.”
Funny enough, Doncic actually did admit to having some nerves before the game, but said that the ovation he got from the fans helped to get over that and once the game got started he was able to have a lot of fun. The offense was clicking for the Lakers and Redick felt everyone simply played for each other.
“Yeah, I thought we were able to generate really good offense throughout the night,” the Lakers coach added. “We didn’t allow their switching to slow us down. I thought our three main guys did a nice job of playing off of each other a lot of the night. Sometimes you can have agendas in a game. I felt like this, for our group, was just a no agenda game beyond winning a basketball game and playing the right way.
“In terms of the start, I’m not thinking to myself ‘Oh, Luka passed to Jaxson [Hayes] and LeBron [James] passed to Jaxson.’ It’s good offense. We’re getting a good offense. Certainly, as you review film and you start building out your database of things within this new group, you can start to look where you can create advantages consistently.”
It was only the first night together, but there were a lot of positives to take away for the Lakers and that starting group overall. The passing of Doncic and LeBron James will only elevate everyone else, though Redick noted that the rest of the team still needs to get used to Doncic’s no-look passes.
“Some of them were not on target, let’s be clear on that,” Redick said about Doncic’s passes. “Rui [Hachimura] had one in the second half that he bobbled, and I said to him at the time, ‘you just have to be ready’, and he said, ‘I know, I know, I’m just not used to it.’ Rui is someone who, he’s reading his guy, and he’s so good at that corner cut in pick-and-roll. But again, I think with our three guys, who are going to be our primary creators, they all did it really well. I think our guys will get accustomed to the Luka passes for sure.”
Between Doncic, LeBron and Austin Reaves, the Lakers have three players who excel at attacking and creating offense for themselves and others. If they can all continue to grow together and get used to how each other plays, this Lakers offense has the chance to be extremely difficult to stop.
JJ Redick most excited about the ‘spirit’ of this Lakers team
The Lakers are playing their best basketball of the year having won six straight games and 10 of their last 11. The Luka Doncic debut went well and the offense looks great, but more than anything, head coach JJ Redick is excited about the spirit and energy surrounding this Lakers team right now.
“I’m most excited by the spirit of this group, that we’ve laid the foundation of who we’re gonna be,” Redick said. “It’s a process to build and identity and it’s not something that is easy and there are moments of pain and moments of frustration. I think our overall group buy-in is at a really high level and I know Luka is motivated and Luka is a competitor and I expect that spirit to continue into All-Star break and post All-Star break.”
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