LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, Luke Kennard and Bronny James stood alongside assistant coaches and trainers on a golf course on Sunday.
They were engaged in some friendly competition under the blazing Orlando sun.
All season, James has talked about golf as his happy place. Reaves’ hand-eye coordination has become legendary around the Lakers’ locker room. Doncic is relatively new to the sport, but apparently is picking it up quickly. And Kennard was hanging out with his teammates hours after they had screamed, jumped and picked him up in celebration of his game-winning shot against the Magic in their 105-104 win on Saturday.
Things are good in Laker land, even though LA fell to the Pistons on Monday, 113-110.
Yes, Detroit snapped the Lakers’ nine-game winning streak. Yes, the Pistons’ suffocating second-rated defense in the league held them to 27.6% shooting from beyond the 3-point line.
But the Lakers once again showed heart, forcing a nail biter. They clawed their way back from a 16-point deficit with a 20-8 run in the third quarter to tie the score at 87-87 with 32.9 seconds left.
Then, in the fourth quarter, they went on a 7-0 run to once again knot the game at 105-105 with 2:39 left. With the Pistons up 113-110 and 0.3 seconds left, Doncic couldn’t get a clean look at the basket and attempted a heavily-contested game-tying 3, but he missed.
But none of that really matters.
The vibes around the Lakers are good right now, a stark turnaround from where they were just a short time earlier. This loss won’t impact that.
Some pundits are going to point to the Lakers’ loss to the PIstons as proof they can’t hang with the most elite teams in the league. The Pistons are in first place in the East and they were without their star guard Cade Cunningham, who was sidelined for his third straight game because of a partially collapsed lung.
The next few weeks will tell if that narrative has any merit, considering two of the Lakers’ next 10 games are against the Thunder, who are atop the Western Conference and are favored to win the championship.
But the Lakers’ loss to the Pistons should be a question mark, not a red flag, especially since they’ve recently beaten multiple contenders, including the Rockets, Nuggets, Knicks and Timberwolves.
The Lakers believe in themselves. They believe in each other. Over their winning streak, there were so many times when they could’ve dropped the rope, but instead they showed a deep trust in each other, coming closer together.
There was Kennard’s game-winner against the Magic. There was Reaves’ incredible purposely missed free throw and made field goal as time expired against the Nuggets, followed by Doncic’s game-winner in overtime.
There was James’ 30-point performance on 13-for-14 shooting against the Rockets, followed by his 19-point, 15-rebound and 10-assist triple-double against the Heat. Oh, and over the Lakers’ winning streak, Doncic averaged 40 points, 8.4 rebounds, 7.4 assists and 2.6 steals a game, including 51-point and 60-point performances.
There’s a winning vibe around the Lakers.
It’s a far cry from where things were just a short time ago. One moment in particular stands out as the nadir of the season: When the Lakers lost to the Thunder on Feb. 9, 119-110. Reaves was slumped in his chair as he talked to reporters. James sounded and looked exhausted. “That’s a championship team right there,” he said. “We’re not.”
Things felt off.
Over the last few months, there were a lot of tough moments. James was forced to answer questions about his relationship with Lakers’ governor Jeanie Buss after an ESPN story claimed she was frustrated with him for a myriad of reasons, and even “privately mused” about trading him.
There were weeks on end in which Doncic, James and Reaves had to field questions about the dysfunctional Big Three, who had only played 11 games together before the All-Star break and looked disjointed when they shared the court.
There was the narrative that Doncic wasn’t a winner. And the narrative that the Lakers were better without James after LA won three in a row with him sidelined earlier this month, improving to 10-2 when Reaves and Doncic shared the court without him.
During all of that drama, James retirement seemed like a real possibility for James. Doncic seemed unhappy. The Lakers’ locker room felt tense.
Now, things couldn’t be more different.
How could James retire now? Doncic has skyrocketed to the top of the MVP conversation. The Lakers’ locker room is fun.
So, one loss to the Pistons isn’t going to change that.
It may have let out a little air from the tire. But the tire was so well-inflated over the last few weeks that the car isn’t going to feel a thing.
The Lakers’ loss to the Pistons was greatly overshadowed by all of their winning moments over the last few weeks. By their newfound trust in each other.
By their time on the golf court, which made all of the recent negativity surrounding them seem like a long-lost nightmare under the Florida sun.
