Luka Doncic made a successful debut for Los Angeles in the dominant 132-113 win for the Los Angeles Lakers over the Utah Jazz. His mentor Dirk Nowitzki was also in attendance.
The legendary German didn’t miss the chance to be there live at the Crypto.com Arena on this historic evening, which will be a source of additional pain to many Dallas Mavericks fans. Nowitzki then had to wait almost three minutes to see the first points scored by his former successor in his new jersey. In classic Doncic fashion, he grabbed center Walker Kessler by the pear, invited him to the dance and drained one of his famous step-back threes.
Doncic had already made his first mark, though, with the second play of the game being an alley-oop pass to Jaxson Hayes, after LeBron James had already served the team’s new starting center with an alley-oop. Due to the team’s center problem, the 24-year-old will be in demand for much of the rest of the season and will run many pick-and-rolls with Luka/LeBron.
He was also one of the reasons why the Lakers were able to pull ahead early on. The offense ran smoothly and did not look like it was playing together for the first time in this line-up. After twelve minutes, L.A. led by twelve points, while shooting 14/22, Doncic scored a total of five points in the first period.
Doncic finds LeBron, Lakers pull ahead early
The trend continued into the second quarter. Utah couldn’t find a way to contain the Lakers’ offense, which consistently created good shots. Doncic delighted the fans with a great full-court pass to LeBron and contributed a further six points in the second quarter, including a fadeaway jumper in the style of Nowitzki. At half-time, the Lakers were already leading by 25 points, which meant the game was already decided.
Coach JJ Redick split LeBron and Luka’s minutes for the most part, giving both of them a free hand to lead the offense. Thanks to Austin Reaves, the team actually always had at least two good ball handlers on the court and sought one mismatch after another, which Utah didn’t know how to defend. After the break, Doncic was allowed to play again for a few moves before his shift was over after just under 24 minutes. In the end, Doncic, who was on court for the first time since Christmas, had 14 points (5/14 FG), five rebounds and four assists.
However, the Lakers’ top scorer was James with 24 points, while the King added eight rebounds and seven assists. Reaves contributed a further 22 points, with Rui Hachimura adding 21. No single player stood out for Utah, but Lauri Markkanen and John Collins were the top scorers with 17 points each.
For the Lakers, it was their sixth win in a row and their tenth in their last eleven games, while it was Utah’s third loss in a row. The two teams will meet again on Thursday night, but then in Salt Lake City. After that, both teams will have a few days off for the All-Star Game.
