The Lakers waited nearly four months to have a fully healthy roster available to them for Friday’s home win over the Clippers.
And they didn’t waste time in offering a glimpse of what their offensive ceiling and potential can be in their 125-122 victory.
On their first possession, the Lakers ran a play for Luka Dončić to come off a pindown screen from LeBron James before receiving a dribble handoff from Deandre Ayton (a version of their 77 action), helping Dončić get to the rim before missing as wide-open of a layup as he’s going to get in the flow of a game. Their next shot: a missed stepback 3-pointer from Dončić after Brook Lopez switched onto him.
The Lakers didn’t miss much after that.
The team made its next 11 shots, and 16 of its 17 field goal attempts, in one of the Lakers’ best offensive displays of the season.
“The quality of shots was high,” Austin Reaves said. “So we had high confidence that it’s going to go in whoever’s shooting it. The ball was moving and we were moving their defense. Luka and Bron were doing a really good job making plays.”
The Lakers’ 41 first-quarter points and 84.2% shooting (16-of-19) in the opening quarter obviously stoodout.
But even more impressive than the results was the ease of how scoring came to them – which was expected when this roster was put together over the summer but still a sight to behold with the Lakers firing on all cylinders early against the Clippers.
Sure, Dončić, who scored 17 first-quarter points to go with four assists, and James took some tough early shots.
But very few of them felt forced.
Most of the Lakers’ shots were in-rhythm, with the Lakers creating several wide-open looks from beyond the arc early, leading to them making eight straight 3s after Dončić’s first missed 3.
“We made some shots, but I thought the extra passes, the execution and the way we got to spacing and early offense and just sharing the basketball, it was clutter-free, ego-free,” JJ Redick said. “We just played. You’re not going to shoot 67% [often] but the process was really good.”
The Lakers explosive start led to one of their most efficient and prolific offensive games of the season, finishing with 125 points, shooting over 51% from the field and on 3s to go with 31 assists.
“When we’re sharing the ball, when we’re moving the ball, when we have 25-plus assists in a game, we’re a pretty good team,” James said. “We want to try to aim for that, for everybody to fell involved. Offensively, we just want to try to have low turnover games, which we got to continue to be better at that. Obviously it starts with Luka, myself and AR. We are the primary ball handlers in getting everybody involved and not turning the ball over as much. So, it was a good offensive display for us.”
None of what happened on Friday night surprised the Lakers.
Nor should it, with Dončić, James and Reaves at the helm.
The Lakers came back with the All-Star break encouraged by what they saw in Thursday’s practice, which was their first session in over a month and first with their group healthy in even longer.
Their lack of rust was immediately evident.
“The way we came in back from the All-Star break, we went straight to it, playing against each other and just scrimmaging, getting up and down, and everybody looked like they was in shape running the floor,” Deandre Ayton said. “And it just really looked like nobody really had rust on them. And seeing how Luka performed in the first quarter, I’m ‘yep, yep, we got to taste it in practice.’ And it was just fun to see how we could bring it over into playing hard and with energy. And the main point was togetherness. It felt really fun.”