Monday night, February 10, 2025 will go down in Los Angeles Lakers history as the first game Luka Doncic played in purple and gold.
This long-awaited date finally arrived and it didn’t disappoint. Early on in the game, it was clear Doncic was making an exerted effort to integrate himself in the Lakers offense. Playing with a brand new set of teammates can really throw a player out of rhythm, but for a player as prodigious as Doncic, it didn’t take long for him to start creating chemistry and figuring out his place. To begin the game, he hit center Jaxson Hayes for a lob and Hayes slammed it down, having an open path to the rim. We’ve seen Doncic excel with lob-threat centers before during his tenure in Dallas, and least for the time being, Hayes appears to be that guy for Luka in LA.
The highlight of the night, though, has to be Doncic looking up in transition and seeing his future Hall-of-Famer teammate LeBron James down the court, ready to lay the ball.
In this clip, you can see the glee in Luka’s eyes when he realizes LeBron is running in transition:
The Lakers absolutely destroyed the Utah Jazz Monday night, outscoring them in the first half 72-49. But one thing absolutely stood out: Doncic as a Laker will be a serious problem for the Western Conference.
Whenever Luka had the ball in his hands, it seemed like the Jazz defense was only worried about him scoring. This is exactly what the Lakers want: for defenses to over-worry about Doncic scoring, which will allow James and Austin Reaves to play off the ball and create shots from a variety of spots and situations. Reaves and James will rarely worry about going one-on-one against a defender now, as they can create easier shots from cutting into the lane or setting flare screens that open up a shooter. Doncic’s gravity with the ball in his hands brings these concepts to the table, and as the season progresses and the team’s chemistry improves, they are going to be near impossible to stop offensively.
Doncic’s stats for his first game in a Lakers uniform weren’t his best, but it’s understandable, considering it was his first game with new teammates. In 24 minutes of action, Doncic scored 14 points, grabbed five rebounds and dished out four assists.
As Doncic eases his way into the team’s offense, expect his stats to go up and his involvement in the offense to lean in towards Luka running the offense more frequently than LeBron does. James has been the main ball handler for the Lakers for as long as he’s played in LA, but now that Doncic has arrived, he no longer needs to assume that much responsibility, especially at 40 years old. Now, we can see the older James flourish with his off-ball movement and watch dozens of cuts to the basket that will most likely lead to highlight dunks.
This offense will be an exciting watch for the rest of the season, and Lakers fans are surely salivating as their imagination runs wild as to how this offense will look come playoff time.