Lakers entering All-Star break on a high note

As the Lakers walked off the court inside of Crypto.com Arena after Thursday’s win over the Dallas Mavericks, they were feeling good about the state of the team entering the All-Star break. 

Because even with their status as true NBA title contenders being in doubt, a bigger-picture view of their season within the context of Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves playing a combined 10 games together offered optimism.

“We’re top-five in the West and we’ve had those guys together for 10 games,” Coach JJ Redick said. “AR’s missed time, an extended stretch. Luka missed some time. Bron missed the start of the year. You’d take that.

“Doesn’t mean the day-to-day, [the] internal pressure you put on yourself…doesn’t mean that’s going to go away. But you’ve got to feel good about the last 14 games outside of the San Antonio game [Tuesday] night.”

The Lakers started last season 33-21, with James (four), Reaves (five) and the combination of Doncic (four)/Anthony Davis (five) missing a combined 18 games through the Lakers’ first 54 games of the season.

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And through this season’s first 54 games, the Lakers are 33-21 despite a significant dip in player availability from their stars, with their best players tripling their combined amount of missed games (56) by this point of the season compared to last year. 

Reaves has been sidelined for nearly half (26 games) of the season. James has missed 18 games after being on the shelf for the first 14 games because of sciatica. Doncic sat out of the four games entering the break because of a strained left hamstring, and has been sidelined for 12 games.

And even with the team having a 7-3 record in games Doncic, James and Reaves have played, there’s still context missing within the games they have been able to get on the floor together.

Those five first games the team’s star trio played together after James made his season debut in the Nov. 18 home win over the Utah Jazz came with James clearly still working to find his rhythm after the long layoff. In Game No. 8 on Christmas Day, Reaves left midway through the loss to the Houston Rockets because of a strained left calf that would later sideline him for 19 consecutive games. And Games Nos. 9-10, wins over the Brooklyn Nets (Feb. 3) and Philadelphia 76ers (Feb. 5), respectively, came with Reaves playing as a reserve on a minutes restriction and Doncic leaving midway through the game against the 76ers because of the hamstring injury. 

And this is before even factoring in key players such as Marcus Smart (10), Rui Hachimura (10) and Deandre Ayton (eight) also missing significant time. 

“We’re still trying to be healthy, trying to get healthy,” Hachimura said. “I know AR just came back and he’s trying to ramp it up. We’ve been building our chemistry pretty good this whole season. [That] kind of stuff is going to be important. I’ve been in the playoffs a couple times, and team chemistry is really going to be important.”

The lack of player availability doesn’t mask clear roster deficiencies.

The defense, especially on the perimeter, is still troublesome although they’ve been trending in the right direction on that end of the floor with the help of their zone defense performing well. 

The quality of their wins – and margins of defeat in their losses – suggests they aren’t in the true upper echelon of the Western Conference standings, let alone the entire NBA.

But the Lakers are optimistic of what they can look like if they’re able to come out of the break with something that’s been rare this season: their three best players healthy, and playing their basketball, and surrounded by a supporting cast that’s stepped up to keep the team afloat.

“Most of the games, we haven’t even had our full squad,” Jaxson Hayes said. “We’ve had a lot of injuries throughout the year. I’m feeling good going into the second half of the season. Hopefully, we can’t get healthy and come out strong.”