The Lakers (11-4) accomplished plenty without James during their first 14 games. Luka Doncic jump-started his most-valuable-player campaign and rose to the top of the NBA scoring leaderboard. Austin Reaves is averaging career highs in points, rebounds, assists, steals and minutes. Some wondered how much the team really would benefit from James’ return after it started 10-4 without him.
Then the Lakers scored a season-high 140 points, shot a season-best 59.5% from the field and locked down on defense to give up just 23 points during a 15-minute second-half stretch that turned a five-point deficit into a 23-point blowout.
“I can fit in with anybody,” James said. “I don’t even understand why that was a question.”
Doncic continued his scoring spree with 37 points and 10 assists but eight turnovers. Reaves had 26 points.
The Lakers lauded their early season chemistry, and coach JJ Redick praised players for leading themselves through difficult times. He purposely restructured timeouts to give players time to discuss alone before the coaches joined them, hoping the opportunities for player-to-player communication prompted stronger team connection. Adding James’ voice to the conversation was an easy transition.
“Us as a young team, I’m glad we got hold of accountability before LeBron got out there,” Ayton said. “I’m glad we went through some tough games and a little of hardships and ups and downs and adversity. And it made us prepare for times like this where he says one thing and we get it done right away.”
The Jazz (5-9) knocked the Lakers back with guard Keyonte George making five threes in the first half and 23 points on nine-for-15 shooting. Utah jumped out to a 11-point lead in the first half, but the Lakers tied it with 18.8 seconds left in the second quarter and went into halftime down by four, prepared to make a push.
“The word we were using as a coaching staff was our ‘poise’ as a group,” Redick said. “Not overreacting, not pulling apart, problem solving, all that stuff, in real time. Just continuing to play. That, at times, was missing last year, and for us to get that on the first night [fully healthy] was really good.”
This story originally appeared on LA Times
