The discourse around the Los Angeles Lakers would give the impression that their team chemistry is a big problem. Various stories have come out over the past year, making the list rather long: LeBron James not attending Luka Doncic’s press conference after signing an extension, the tension between Luka and him over whose team the Lakers are, and, most recently, the disconnect between James and Jeanie Buss.
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Head coach JJ Redick has often been honest to a fault when speaking to the media. So it’s not unusual to get quotes about how the team needs to play better defense or give better effort. That has also added to the narrative that the Lakers’ team chemistry isn’t great.
Those narratives, however, go out the window when the Lakers play. This is a team that genuinely seems to get along, from Luka and LeBron to the guys all the way down the bench.
This week’s performance only further confirmed the synergy the Lakers roster has. And to top it, Jake LaRavia has enjoyed some time in the spotlight for roasting his teammates.
First, it was Jaxson Hayes, who threw down an East Bay Funk Dunk in the final minutes of Monday night’s road win over the Bulls. Everyone wearing purple and gold lost their minds when Hayes did it. But in the locker room afterwards, LaRavia deadpanned that Hayes, “Didn’t get that high, but it was alright.” He then threw shade at Luka by saying he’s never dunked like that before.
If there’s one thing anyone has learned about Doncic over the years, it’s that trying to trash-talk him is only going to end with you getting hurt. Luka is the closest thing the NBA has to a T-1000, a robot sent from the future to destroy everything in its path. Attacking him only makes him angrier.
So when he received that barb from LaRavia, the Slovenian responded by letting them know that not only had he done that exact dunk before, he had video proof that he’d done it as a teenager. ESPN’s Lakers beat writer Dave McMenamin was able to dig up the video.
And sure enough, a 13-year-old Luka did his best Shawn Kemp impression and actually nailed it. We wrote about this yesterday, but now a new wrinkle has come to light, and amazingly, LaRavia is doubling down.
After Amazon’s NBA on Prime Instagram account posted Luka’s dunk, LaRavia commented on it, “AI is crazy nowadays,” basically saying that there’s no way Luka’s dunk was real.
When Prime’s account responded that he had 24 hours to drop his own version, incredibly, he did! And he tagged it, “Not AI @lukadoncic.”
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Who knows how Luka will respond to this? But the Cavs might just find out, because everything is in play, from him trying this dunk in-game to him dropping 60 points just for fun.
The Lakers have won four of five games to move to 28-17. And right now they’re in fifth place in the West, just a half-game behind the Rockets. More importantly, the vibes are great. It may be time to take this team seriously, even if they won’t.
