Luka Dončić stuffed the stat sheet to the tune of 43 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists, two steals and a block on Tuesday, and his Lakers still lost to the Warriors, 119-109, on opening night as Dončić finished as a minus-eight for the game.
Putting up numbers like that and still losing is deliciously ripe for overreaction in Lakers land. So let’s do it! And let’s start with the fact that J.J. Redick had to play Dončić 40 minutes, which is not ideal in any regular-season game — let alone on opening night — in a league obsessed with load managing its stars’ mileage.
Such is life without LeBron James, who’s out until at least mid-November as he deals with this sciatica situation and the Lakers simply don’t have much else to turn to on a nightly basis. Yes, Austin Reaves went for 26, but that’s also a lot to ask of him every night. And even if he does, against the good teams, two guys is not enough.
Bottom line: You simply cannot rely on two dudes combining for 69 points, 18 assists and 17 rebounds while logging a combined 76 minutes, especially if you’re still losing the game. Those are not sustainable numbers through any lens.
Beyond that, there’s no sense in regurgitating the box score from one game. No doubt the Lakers will get more from the likes of Rui Hachimura and hopefully Gabe Vincent and Deandre Ayton, the latter of whom Lakers fans have spent the summer convincing themselves can suddenly become a player he hasn’t been in a half decade.
Nevertheless, as one-game evals go, Dončić having to go hero mode for 40 minutes just to stay within striking distance is kind of a poisonous recipe. Will Redick back off his minutes? Can he afford to until LeBron returns?
“Every game is different,” Redick said of Dončić’s workload against the Warriors. “I’m not concerned about that.”
Redick is right. Every game is different. Which is why Luka can’t be expected to produce at this level every night. And he won’t have to as soon as LeBron gets back, right? That’s interesting. At some point LeBron is not going to be, you know, LeBron.
Honestly, can the Lakers even depend on James to pop right back into All-NBA mode at almost 41 years old and already ailing? Truth is, even when LeBron comes back, he simply can’t be expected to play more than 50 games at this stage. Maybe he will. It’s surely possible. But if you’re planning realistically, you have to be prepared to be without him for a decent amount of time, and the initial returns on his absence weren’t great.
The upside, of course, is Luka was great. He only made two of his 10 3-pointers, but he was in do-everything mode and, as usual, getting to any spot he wanted on the floor as he registered the highest scoring output in a season opener for any Lakers player since Kobe Bryant put 45 on the Rockets to begin the 2007-08 campaign.
If Dončić is going to make a run at his first MVP, his case is going to have to start being built in these early non-LeBron games as he aims to keep the Lakers afloat. It’s almost a guarantee he’s going to put up massive stats, but can enough of the supporting staff step up their game to make it matter? Can Redick avoid the temptation to run Dončić into the ground? If it gets desperate enough, he might have to.
Right now, obviously nothing is desperate. It’s one game against a very good Warriors team, who were operating close to full strength (Moses Moody and De’Anthony Melton were out). But it was a glimpse into life without LeBron, and despite how well Dončić played, it wasn’t such a pretty picture for the Lakers.