Are the Lakers playing for today or tomorrow? Yes.
As Luka Doncic watches and waits, L.A. has won 10 of 12
Luka Doncic’s first Lakers game will probably be Monday night, against Utah. First he has to promise to remove his shoes, leave the carpet spotless, and wash his own dishes. The house is fine as it is.
On Jan. 13 they lost a 24-point game at home to San Antonio, with uncontained flames all around them, with the annual Grammy trip awaiting them as the music-makers prepared to occupy the former Staples Center. On Wednesday night, they pounded Golden State to go 10-2 since that loss, and are a game behind Houston, the No. 4 team in the Western Conference. They, the Rockets and Nuggets all have 19 losses as of Friday night.
Doncic has been the subject and predicate of all sentences written and spoken about the Lakers since the trade that propelled him out of Dallas. The supposition is that he will improve them greatly, and that he will become the superforce that the Lakers must have, in accordance with NBA rules. But right now the Lakers have found a reliable rhythm that can only be disrupted by a solo riff. Doncic should be allowed to join the band only when he has learned its particular cadence, when he’s ready to move the ball smoothly and play more than a pretense of defense. The good news for the Lakers is that he has been watching them blossom from the bench, and that he is now armed with the most powerful weapon a chastened star can have, i.e., something to prove.
There were other cataclysmic trades in the period that ended Thursday. Cleveland pilfered De’Andre Hunter from Atlanta and now has a reliable swingman to go with its powerful backcourt and its two imposing bigs. San Antonio sped up its timetable for contention by taking De’Aaron Fox off Sacramento’s hands, and now Victor Wembanyama has an All-Star playmate. Jimmy Butler, a formidable offensive player with an ironclad expiration date, talked his way out of yet another franchise, and Miami traded him to the Warriors, where he will have to keep up with Steph Curry and Draymond Green.
But Doncic-for-Anthony Davis was the deal that crossed over to the news shows and perked up global ears. Mavericks fans, including Patrick Mahomes, were mystified and then outraged. Rarely has a general manager disparaged a parting star the way general manager Nico Harrison did, referring to “character” and saying the Mavericks improved theirs. One can assume coach Jason Kidd felt the same way. Mark Cuban, the former owner who sold the team to Miriam Adelson, answered all questions with “MFFL,” the Mavericks Fan For Life slogan that he popularized.
Doncic’s conditioning was the No. 1 concern but, as Reggie Miller of TNT pointed out, you don’t huff and puff your way to first team All-NBA for five consecutive years. Only eight months ago Doncic was fit enough to get the Mavericks to the NBA Finals. It’s no secret that Doncic enjoys an occasional kiss of the hops, as did Dirk Nowitzki, the Mavericks’ alltime leading scorer. If anyone in the NBA can turn Doncic into a commando, it’s LeBron James, who is still a block of granite at age 40 because he spends $1 million on gym activities.
In fact, James scored 42 points Thursday night. Michael Jordan is the only other 40-year-old in NBA history to put up 40. James added 17 rebounds and eight assists, shot 6 for 9 from the 3-point line and 14 for 25 overall. Next weekend he will play in his 21st All-Star Game, and he is averaging 24.1 points, 9.1 assists and 7.6 rebounds. “Honestly, I don't know how I’m still doing this,” he told ESPN’s Lisa Salters last Friday after he went 33-11-22 in a 16-point win at New York. He knows full well how he’s doing it, and it’s inconceivable that he’ll stop doing it anytime soon, especially now that Doncic will be beside him, a 26-year-old as of Feb. 28, just as Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and Anthony Davis co-piloted his previous titles.
But there is no future Hall of Famer playing with James until Doncic activates, and the Lakers have shot 50 percent or better in their last seven games. In the four games since Davis strained an abdominal muscle, the Lakers are 4-0 with an average victory margin of 24.5 points. Their only losses since Jan. 13 were a 14-pointer at the Clippers’ new home, and a 14-pointer at Philadelphia the night after they won at Charlotte.
General manager Rob Pelinka will be given credit for picking up the phone when Harrison called to offer Doncic. He didn’t see Spam Risk on his monitor, in other words. But he had already picked up Dorian Finney-Smith, a defensive-minded wing who had played with Doncic in Dallas, and Jarred Vanderbilt came back to the rotation Jan. 25. Vanderbilt is a rugged defender and rebounder who can play the “4” position that Davis wanted to play in L.A. He grabbed 14 rebounds in 21 minutes Wednesday, and when the Warriors made a frantic run, he had two offensive boards that helped stabilize things. In these 12 games, the Lakers rank third in defensive efficiency.
Since Pelinka sent DeAngelo Russell to Brooklyn, Austin Reaves has averaged 23.3 points and six assists, and his chemistry with James intensifies with each night. Rui Hachimura had three consecutive 20-point games as well. Gabe Vincent came off the bench against the Warriors and hit five 3-pointers, which is why the Lakers got him last year. A lot of stars were aligning before Doncic showed up. Role players, too.
The one consensus opinion on this trade was that Dallas will profit now and the Lakers will profit later. Davis has not yet played for the Mavericks, but they won at Boston, 127-120, as Klay Thompson scored 25 and Max Christie, who came over in the Doncic trade, scored 15 off the bench. The Mavericks also picked up Caleb Martin from Philadelphia, and Martin earned his playoff stripes in 2003, when Miami won its way into the NBA Finals. Davis remains the only NBA player this season to average 25 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks.
And the Lakers definitely have assembled themselves a future, especially when they traded Dalton Knecht and some flotsam for Charlotte center Mark Williams, a 23-year-old with recurring back problems but substantial promise. On Jan. 22 at Memphis, Williams scored 38 points, and he has had five 15-rebound games since Jan. 12. All he’ll have to do with the Lakers is dunk, rebound and be tall around the rim.
Until Saturday night it appeared Oklahoma City would be the Western Conference favorite, and maybe it still is. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is speeding toward the MVP award and has scored at least 50 points on the past three Wednesdays. The Thunder showed their confidence by unplugging the phone during the trading period. But the mutual improvement pact between Dallas and L.A. gives the postseason a fascination it didn’t have. If the NBA is as manipulative as some people think, it will somehow match the Mavericks against the Lakers in a playoff series. By then, perhaps Doncic will be close to comfort.