LOS ANGELES — “He makes life easy, with his passing and his IQ.”
That’s how Deandre Ayton described playing with LeBron James for the first time, and his teammates agree. While there was a little rust early, LeBron wasn’t moving or playing like a 40-year-old who had just missed the first 14 games of the season with sciatica.
LeBron put up a double-double of 11 points and 12 assists in his first game back — and his passes looked especially sharp. He carved up the Utah Jazz defense.
“I’m telling everybody, some of these passes, I didn’t even know he seen me cut,” Ayton said, “Just being at the right place, the right time, he’s finding you right away with sharp passes. And, like I said, he’s making your life easy.”
So easy that the Los Angeles Lakers pulled away in the second half for a comfortable 140-126 win over the Jazz. Luka Dončić led the Lakers with 37 points and 10 assists, but he was not the story.
“It was just fun to be out there with the guys, man,” James said. “Like I said, it’s been rough mentally for me. It’s the first time I’ve started a basketball season and not played since I’ve started playing basketball, like, 9 years old. I’ve never missed the beginning of the basketball season.”
James was making history all night long. Just stepping on the court, he became the first player in NBA history to play 23 seasons in the league — seven players on the Utah roster had not even been born yet when he made his NBA debut.
“That just made my back hurt,” he joked when told that stat.
“I was just telling him a fun fact,” Ayton said. “He threw me alley-oop. I said, ‘That’s my second alley for me from you; the first one was when I was in eighth grade at your camp.’”
Then, in the second quarter, James made the 2,561st regular-season 3-pointer of his career, passing Reggie Miller for sixth place on the NBA’s all-time regular-season list. (Next up on that list is Klay Thompson at 2,729, whom he is not likely to catch.)
However, it was his passing that was on point all night — his 12 assists led to 28 Lakers points. Not bad for the guy Austin Reaves called a “G-League call-up” (James practiced with the Lakers’ G-League team last week while the rest of the team was on a road trip).
After looking a little rusty in his first run, James settled in more in his second stint and not only drained a couple of 3-pointers but also racked up three assists, and he grabbed a couple of rebounds and was more of a presence on defense.
There were moments during the game, like when he got the ball in transition and was a freight train moving downhill, that he looked like vintage LeBron. He was also sharp on the defensive end, calling out coverages and quarterbacking on that side of the floor.
The Lakers had to come from behind in this one because Keyonte George and the Jazz came out red hot. George had 13 points in the first quarter and 23 for the half, channeling his inner Damian Lillard with his play. Lauri Markkanen was his vintage self, as well — moving off the ball, getting open and knocking down shots — on his way to 31 points.
The third quarter started with a Dončić takeover. He scored 17 points with three assists (for six points), accounting for 74.2% of the Lakers’ points in the frame. It helped that the Jazz cooled off from 3 in the third, shooting 2-of-11 from beyond the arc. By the end of the quarter, the Lakers had started to pull away, and James was at the heart of it.
At halftime, coach J.J. Redick preached defense, and it worked.
After George had 23 points in the first half and couldn’t seem to miss, the Lakers held him to six points in the second half. Utah was also 3-of-18 from beyond the arc in the meaningful part of the second half. The result is the Jazz had just 36 second-half points with five minutes to go in the game (after 71 in the first half).
That got the Lakers the win, and it’s plain to see how having James back makes the Lakers better — and their lives easier.
