Grading Luka Doncic's highly-anticipated Lakers debut

The Los Angeles Lakers picked up a huge win over the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night. With the victory, they are now the same number of games back in the West as the Houston Rockets, effectively putting them in joint-fourth place. But all of that was a subplot in this game. Luka Doncic took center stage.

It was Doncic’s first game in a Lakers jersey since the seismic trade that changed the landscape of the NBA ahead of the deadline. LA sent Anthony Davis to the Dallas Mavericks in a move to land Doncic. Now, the 25-year-old will likely be the face of the Lakers organization for the next decade.

But how did Doncic’s debut go?

Luka Doncic debut with Lakers was a success

Doncic hadn’t played in a game since Christmas Day against the Minnesota Timberwolves (when he was still in Dallas), as he had been dealing with a calf injury.

Because of that, Doncic was placed on a minutes restriction heading into his debut at Crypto.com Arena. Luckily, the Lakers didn’t have to worry about enforcing that restriction too heavily.

The Lakers blew the doors off of Utah, earning a 132-113 victory in the first game of the Doncic era of Lakers basketball. Everything went off without a hitch. However, Doncic didn’t shoot the ball particularly well.

Doncic finished the game with 14 points, five rebounds, and four assists while shooting 5-of-14 from the field and 1-of-7 from behind the three-point line.

Needless to say, it was a very inefficient performance for Doncic, which happens every once in a while with guys who take as many shots as he does. A big part of his rough shooting night was also likely due to the fact that he hasn’t played in a game in well over a month.

Defensively, Doncic was pretty average. Far from the issue that the Mavs painted him out to be. That said, the Jazz aren’t exactly brimming with offensive creation, either.

Despite Doncic’s bad shooting numbers, his debut as a Laker was a success. And it had nothing to do with his actual statistics.

LA got a win. That was the most important part of the night. But Doncic looked comfortable out there. He didn’t shoot the ball well, but it was clear that lineups with him and LeBron James on the floor together can work. And work well.

They were spacing the floor for each other, running the offense back and forth, and it didn’t look awkward. In fact, James and Doncic opened the game with back-to-back lobs thrown to Jaxson Hayes, the first from James and the second from Doncic.

Doncic even threw James an outlet pass that was enough to get Lakers fans everywhere excited.

Seeing that Doncic and James can play together effectively is far more important than any shooting numbers the Slovenian superstar could have produced.

It wasn’t a picture-perfect night. There were no Hollywood heroics (largely because the Jazz weren’t great competition), and Doncic didn’t light up the floor.

But he showed that this can work in the short term as well as the long term. And that’s an amazing place to start.