We may have underestimated how important LeBron James is to the Los Angeles Lakers. Okay, that's hard to do because everyone knows how valuable LeBron is to every team he's ever played on. But in the Lakers' season debut against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night, the Lakers got a monstrous game from Luka Doncic (43/12/9), and efficient 26 points and 9 assists from Austin Reaves, and a double-digit loss.
That's not great. And it may have proved that the main thing Lakers fans feared — that the team has a pretty low ceiling whenever LeBron is sidelined — might be true. Of course, there are numerous other reasons the Lakers lost; far too many turnovers, 11 missed free throws, going 8 for 32 from 3-point range. Those are all pretty clear examples of first-game sloppiness, which no team is exempt from.
But expecting nearly 70 points from Luka and Reaves on a nightly basis doesn't feel fair either, so the Lakers are back to square one. They will win games without LeBron, but the West is so good that treading water whenever LeBron is sidelined (which might be a lot this year) won't be good enough.
So here we are; the Lakers' biggest problem is a lack of firepower when LeBron James doesn't play, which seems painfully obvious now when you say it out loud. Of course that's their biggest problem! It's LeBron!
JJ Redick says what Lakers fans are thinking about LeBron James
Lakers head coach JJ Redick was about as honest as you hope a head coach can be after the Lakers loss, discussing in specifics how LeBron would have changed things if he were on the floor:
"It's hard to forget about Lebron. The reality is when you're focused on the group that you have, you gotta make that group work... We had a few possessions we couldn't score against the zone... it'd be great to have Lebron just to throw it to in the high post..."
He's right! Something like throwing the ball into the high post may seem like something all NBA players can do, but sometimes greatness takes the form of taking the simple play that's available to you, and LeBron has been elite at that for two decades.
Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, and the Lakers' supporting cast comprise a good roster. On a lot of nights, they'll be the better team. But we saw a masterclass from Doncic and a very good game from Reaves on Tuesday, and the Warriors handled this team with relative ease. As long as LeBron is riding the pine, we'll see a lot of those games, too.