LeBron James finally made his season debut last week, scoring 11 points and dishing out 12 assists in a win over the Jazz. It was a nondescript stat line for the lofty standards of the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, but it also proved that the Lakers, who had already gotten off to a great start as LeBron sat out with sciatica, could still operate at a high level even if he played but had a smaller role.
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LeBron followed up that performance by hunting his own shot a bit more in his second game. His field goal attempts rose from 7 to 18, and he ended up scoring 17 points in that one. Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, meanwhile, have continued to thrive, as they averaged 35 and 24, respectively, in those two wins.
Reggie Miller appeared on The Dan Patrick Show yesterday, and he said that having LeBron be more of a complementary piece will present a unique challenge to Lakers head coach JJ Redick.
“How does JJ navigate that, having an All-NBA player just a year ago, Second Team, in LeBron, and now you incorporate him within the Lakers’ structure?” he asked. Both Miller and Dan Patrick agreed that “it’s a great problem to have,” though it will still take some adjusting for all involved.
Miller is jumping the gun a bit here since LeBron is still ramping up his conditioning and trying to fit into what the Lakers are doing without disrupting their early success. He’s not going to average 14 points this year, and he showed it by going out last night and dropping 25 on the Clippers.
Still, there seems to be no doubt that this is Luka’s team now. The Slovenian superstar was white-hot out of the gates as he dropped 24 first-quarter points, and his overall play has made it clear that he’ll be heard from in the MVP race this year if he stays healthy.
The Lakers have shown that they can win without LeBron, and in a small sample size, they’ve shown that they can win when he’s taking more of a backseat in the offense. When he gets fully up to speed, this is going to be an extremely dangerous team that’s capable of hanging with anyone.
Miller brought up an example of how LeBron was used mostly as a screener in the closing moments of that second Jazz game, and he said that he expects him to be more assertive going forward.
“At some point, when LeBron has his legs, he has his wind, and he’s back in full shape with no back issues, you assume at some point LeBron’s gonna have the ball with some of these high screen-and-rolls, so once they figure out that dynamic with crunch time (they still won the game, don’t get me wrong), but they’ve gotta figure out their closing moment and action between [LeBron, Luka and Reaves].”
Miller is high on the Lakers’ chances, but he still ranks them behind some of the other top teams in the West. It was no surprise that he put the Thunder No. 1, then he followed them with the Nuggets and Rockets on the next tier.
The Lakers did get killed by 29 in their one meeting with the Thunder, though LeBron wasn’t back at that point. They haven’t yet gone against the Nuggets or Rockets. They’ll have to wait until Christmas Day to take on Houston, and they won’t get Nikola Jokic and company until January 20th. Each of those three teams currently has just four losses, and it looks like it’s going to be a battle to get the 2- and 3-seeds and avoid OKC as long as possible in the postseason.
