LOS ANGELES — LeBron James took the court Tuesday for the first time in 202 days, an extended layoff that began with a knee injury in April and ran long because of a bout with sciatica, a painful back condition.
For once, James couldn’t defy age this summer. The Los Angeles Lakers star spent May and June recovering from a medial collateral ligament sprain he suffered in a first-round playoff loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. While James, 40, was all smiles at media day in late September, his ailing back kept him sidelined for training camp, the preseason and the first four weeks of the Lakers’ season. The NBA’s demanding 82-game schedule waits for no man, not even a 21-time all-star, so he was left to watch as Luka Doncic took the wheel and guided the Lakers to an impressive 10-4 start in his absence.
“It’s been rough mentally for me,” James said. “Ever since I started playing when I was 9 years old, I never missed the beginning of a basketball season. Going through that physically, emotionally and spiritually, it tested me.”
James’s exile ended with a 140-126 victory over the Utah Jazz, a joyful blowout that saw him employ a pass-first approach and flash wide grins while making history on multiple fronts. When he stepped onto the Crypto.com Arena court in metallic gold sneakers, James became the first player in NBA history to play in 23 seasons. And when he drilled a deep three-pointer shortly before halftime, James moved past Reggie Miller into sixth place on the NBA’s all-time three-pointers list.
The Lakers looked unprepared without James in a season-opening loss to the Golden State Warriors last month, but they quickly pulled themselves together against a relatively soft schedule thanks to Doncic, who leads the NBA in scoring, and guard Austin Reaves, who is vying for his first all-star selection. As James observed the Lakers taking shape in recent weeks, he was more concerned about his bothersome sciatica than the possibility that his on-court role might evolve.
“To the people making jokes about [sciatica], I pray you never get it,” James said Monday. “It’s not fun. You hope when you step down out of bed, you don’t feel it. You go to bed at night and hope that when you get into bed, you don’t feel it. … There’s not one team or one club in the world that I can’t fit in and play for. I can do everything on the floor. Whatever this team needs me to do, and more, I can do it when I’m back to myself.”
James hardly looked limited by his back against the Jazz, moving crisply and freely during his 30 minutes of action. He ended his warmup routine in customary fashion by rising high for a two-handed dunk, and he crashed into the courtside seats to claim a transition steal in the second half. Still, he showed signs of fatigue when he checked out of the game midway through the first quarter after joking that his “lungs feel like a newborn baby.”
By night’s end, James posted 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting, 12 assists and three rebounds — a highly unusual stat line for the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. James waited more than four minutes after tip-off to take his first shot, and he remained scoreless until he sank a three-pointer early in the second period. Remarkably, James’s seven shot attempts were tied for the third fewest of his 1,563-game career.
Don’t mistake James’s deference for inactivity. Though James stood aside time and again so that Doncic could initiate the Lakers’ offense, he dug deep into his bag of passing tricks against the Jazz’s overmatched defense. James lasered crosscourt assists to Jake LaRavia and Gabe Vincent for open jumpers, and he force-fed center Deandre Ayton for easy buckets to break open the game in the fourth quarter. Feeling Los Angeles’ momentum build, James uncorked a look-away pass to Ayton that drew appreciative gasps from the home crowd.
“I just thought [James] played with the right spirit,” Lakers Coach JJ Redick said. “Very unselfish all night. He was a willing passer. … The defense is going to pay attention to him. I thought he made a lot of great decisions tonight. It was really good to have him back.”
During James’s absence, Doncic and Reaves put up huge scoring performances but also shouldered heavy burdens as isolation creators. Because they were so reliant upon two players to generate the bulk of their offense, the Lakers ranked 17th in offensive efficiency and 21st in assists per game — subpar marks that were mildly concerning despite their gaudy win-loss record.
James’s elite vision and distribution instincts immediately unlocked new layers for the Lakers’ attack. Los Angeles racked up 31 assists and set a season high by scoring 140 points against Utah, even though Redick began pulling his stars midway through the fourth quarter. Importantly, James’s return didn’t marginalize Doncic, who tallied a game-high 37 points, or Reaves, who added 26.
“To share the court with [James] is special,” Doncic said. “He does things that other people can’t. He’s here to help us all, and it’s amazing.”
James said his top priority in the coming weeks will be to improve his conditioning. Fair enough, but the real intrigue will be found in how his offensive role comes together. The 26-year-old Doncic is entrenched as an MVP-caliber workhorse, and the 27-year-old Reaves, James noted, “has jumped his game up a whole ’nother level.” With that pair in place, this year’s Lakers need James’s passing more than his scoring. More than anything, they need James as healthy and fresh as possible to make a deep postseason run.
As the Lakers unraveled against the Timberwolves in the playoffs last spring, their star-dependent offense veered too far into my-turn, your-turn territory. Once Minnesota took control of the series, the Lakers’ auxiliary players turned into bystanders and Redick completely lost faith in his second unit. James can help address those problems by ceding the most grueling day-to-day responsibilities to his younger co-stars so that he can focus on bringing the best out of the Lakers’ role players.
Indeed, James showed the ability to shape-shift his game during the 2024 Paris Olympics, where he downshifted as a scorer in favor of a multifaceted role that involved organizing the offense, handling a variety of defensive assignments and leading a slapped-together roster through tense late-game situations. Stephen Curry’s shooting heroics were unforgettable, but James’s all-around contributions and consistency earned him tournament MVP honors and his third gold medal.
Less proved to be more in Paris. If James brings that Olympic ideal to Hollywood, the Lakers will be more formidable than they’ve been in years.
The post LeBron James spent his season debut passing, not shooting. It was beautiful.
appeared first on Washington Post.
