DENVER — Before his team defeated the Pelicans on Tuesday, coach JJ Redick was honest about the challenge he and the Lakers face when it comes to lineups involving their best three players: Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves.
The challenge isn’t how lineups, or the usage within the lineups, will look when the best three players are split up into different groups: Doncic and Reaves without James; James and Reaves without Doncic, etc.
It’s how to maximize the lineups when they’re all on the court together.
“The bigger challenge is when they’re on the court together because they all want the basketball,” Redick said. “And the reality is someone, or in some cases, people have to sacrifice. The other two guys also have to sacrifice — they’re out there with those three guys.
“LeBron, his usage is low for his career. When Austin’s been out there, his usage is a little bit less than what it’s been throughout the season.”
Because the Lakers spent so much of the season with at least one of Doncic, James and Reaves sidelined — Thursday’s road game against the Nuggets was the 18th game the three stars were all available through 62 games — the season-long numbers don’t paint the full picture of the sacrifices that’ve been made.
While James’ 27.3% usage rate is the lowest mark of his 23-season NBA career, Doncic entered Thursday leading the league in usage rate (36.2%), and Reaves (26.9%) was averaging a career high.
But it’s been a different story since the All-Star break, which has been the longest stretch the Lakers have been healthy and had their best players available without playing-time restrictions.
Doncic’s usage rate dropped from 36.6% pre-break to 33.9% post-break. James’ dipped from 27.4% to 26.5%, while Reaves’ had the most significant drop in usage rate post-break (28% to 22.4%).
And it’s impacted everyone’s individual stats, with Doncic, James and Reaves averaging fewer points, field-goal attempts and free-throw attempts since the break. James and Reaves are also averaging fewer assists since the break, while Doncic is averaging 0.1 more assists per game.
And the Lakers have been better off for it while they still figure themselves out.
Their offense has hummed, with the team entering Thursday with the league’s fifth-best offense post-break, albeit against struggling teams, with the level of competition picking up over the next few weeks.
The Lakers are making progress when it comes to winning the minutes with Doncic, James and Reaves on the floor together — something they struggled with earlier in the season.
More tweaks are needed.
And some have already been made, like Reaves subbing back into games earlier in the second and fourth quarters so he could play alongside James more without Doncic. This should help Reaves, who has sacrificed the most offensively since the break, get involved in the offense as a ball handler.
“We’re just going to keep pushing till we have it,” Redick said. “I mean, there’s no other choice. We’ll keep tweaking stuff.”
Sacrifice will be a continuous theme for the Lakers over the last 5 ½ weeks of the regular season — from the top of the roster down to the last player in the rotation.
The Lakers can’t succeed at the level they want without it.
