By this time of the season,most NBA teams have a sense of their ceiling.
That’s not the case for the Lakers (33-21), who are infifth place in the Western Conferenceeven though LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves have only played 10 of the team’s 54 games together.
Everything considered, it’s impressive.
James has missed 18 games,including the first 14 because of sciatica. Doncic has missed 12 games, including the last four because of a left hamstring strain. And Reaves was sidelined for 26 games, including missing over a month because of a left calf strain.
In total, the Lakers’ three biggest stars have logged 152 minutes together this season. For perspective, Luke Kennard, whom the Lakers acquired at the trade deadline two weeks ago, has already played 96 minutes. And Bronny James, who averages only 7.3 minutes a game, has already surpassed the Big Three in time spent on the court with 211 minutes.
This much is clear: We don’t know what the Lakers are capable of on offense, which is an exciting prospect for a team that ranks 11th in the league in that category.
So, as the Lakers enter the stretch run with 28 games remaining, the biggest question surrounding them is bigger than they’d like.
If their Big Three is healthy, could they make some noise in the playoffs?
James, who has been to the Finals 10 times and won four championships with three different teams over his 23-season career, doesn’t even know the answer to that question.
“I know that when we’ve played some of our best basketball of the season, we’ve looked very good,” James said Sunday ahead of the All-Star Game. “On the other side, when we’ve been terrible, we’ve looked disgusting.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
