Luka Doncic’s tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers has been going about as well as anyone could have hoped for as he’s helped lead the team to the top of the Western Conference standings.
Although Doncic started off his Lakers tenure slowly due to his long layoff from injury, he’s started to round into form and helped the team reel off an eight-game winning streak before it was snapped by the Boston Celtics. Not only did the loss halt some of their momentum, Los Angeles also saw LeBron James leave the game early due to a groin strain.
Seeing James get hurt was more worrisome than losing given what he means to the Lakers and how well he’s been playing as of late. While it seems like James avoided a major injury, the early expectation is he’ll miss one to two weeks and could potentially miss more time depending on the results of his reevaluation.
With James out for the foreseeable future, Los Angeles will need to rely on Doncic. Following the loss to Boston, Doncic acknowledged he and the rest of the roster will need to step up without James, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Hopefully it’s nothing. Obviously he’s gotta take his time, those injuries are I wouldn’t say the worst but they’re tough to deal with. So just take time and we gotta have as a team next man up mentality,” Doncic said.
Head coach JJ Redick has preached a next man up mentality any time injuries have occurred during the 2024-25 season and Doncic seems to understand what it’ll take for the Lakers to be successful without James. There’s no one player that can make up what James does on both ends of the floor, though him being sidelined gives Doncic the opportunity to play his style even more.
Redick has already shifted most of the offensive responsibility to Doncic anyway, so the offense can conceivably still operate fine while James is out. Defensively the team may have some trouble, though, because James had been playing well on that end either as a non-traditional big man or wing.
The upcoming schedule is daunting, though now would be the perfect time for Doncic to rediscover his old self and keep the purple and gold from sinking too far in the standings.
Luka Doncic continuing to get more comfortable in Los Angeles
It’s been over a month since Luka Doncic was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers and he is reportedly continuing to get more comfortable. Doncic and his family recently leased a house, so the new Lakers’ star appears to finally be settling into his new city.
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