LOS ANGELES — While the Lakers have already played 14 games this season, in some ways, the year started for them on Tuesday against the Jazz.
With LeBron James and Gabe Vincent back, the team had an empty
injury report for the first time this season. Allowing head coach JJ Redick to use the entire roster the way he envisioned doing so.
It didn’t all go smoothly for Los Angeles during the early parts of what turned out to be a 140-126 win for the Lakers.
Adding an All-NBA talent like LeBron to a team is a good problem to have, but even good problems are problems. The Lakers went with a starting lineup they had never used before with the addition of Deandre Ayton. While the other four players in LeBron, Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura maintained continuity from last season, the overall unfamiliarity was still evident early on.
This unfamiliarity resulted in early miscues, including blown defensive coverages, numerous turnovers and allowing Utah to score 71 points at the half.
Sure, one can chalk up these problems as growing pains of a team getting used to one another, but using excuses isn’t part of Redick or the Lakers’ culture.
“We challenged the guys at halftime,” Redick said after the win. “ They had 71 [points], it was 16 over what was the expected score. They made some tough shots in the first half, but the challenge was to guard and, up until the last three and a half minutes, we held up to 36 for that half.”
As the game progressed and the stops accumulated on defense, the chemistry on offense heated up faster than food in a microwave.
Momentum is a hard thing to quantify, but the Lakers clearly had it.
The Lakers started to look like a team realizing their full potential. Luka was making his free throws, Ayton was converting on his shots at the rim and Los Angeles ended the third with an exclamation point thanks to a 3-pointer from Vincent off a LeBron assist.
The Lakers ended the quarter on a 21-5 run and in the fourth, LeBron gave everyone inside Crypto.com Arena a reminder of how elite he is as a passer.
LeBron turned the clock back not to the 2010s when he was at the apex of his ability, but to the 1980s Showtime Lakers. He was Magic Johnson-esque with his passes during the final period.
LeBron found Jaxson Hayes rolling to the basket for an easy dunk, then threw a skip pass to Vincent for another deep three.
James’ next pass was one of his prettiest.
He drove to the basket, stared at the crowd and flicked the ball to an open Ayton in the restricted area for an easy layup. LeBron passed the ball so sharply that it had the spin of a tennis ball on it as it landed in Ayton’s hands.
“Some of these passes, I didn’t even know he seen me cut,” Ayton said. “Just being at the right place, at the right time, he’s finding me right away with sharp passes and like I said, he’s making my life easy. I told Bronny, I said ‘Those are easy buckets right there, and I just got in the game.’”
James had not one, not two, not three, but six consecutive assists during this stretch, ensuring even a fake comeback was out of the realm of possibility. The reward for a strong finish was an early exit as Redick cleared the bench with just over three minutes to go.
It was far from a perfect game, but if this is a precursor of what is to come for LeBron and the 2025-26 Lakers, then fans might be in store for a special season.
There will be growing pains for this team still and not every night will end with the starters on the bench. While their 11-4 record — the best start to a season since 2020-21 for the Lakers — gives them cushion, the Western Conference is an unforgiving beast.
The first half showed that an off night can lead to frustration and a potential loss, even against a team below .500. But the second half showed that this Lakers team has a high ceiling with LeBron back in the mix.
“There’s a lot of games in the NBA, so we got to go game by game,” Luka said. “But I think we have a lot of potential.”
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
