Off to an impressive start nearly one month into the season, the Los Angeles Lakers are expected to add a major boost this week.
The addition of LeBron James for the first time this season could come as soon as Tuesday in a home game against the Utah Jazz.
James practiced with the Lakers’ G League team last week and had his first practice of the season with the NBA team on Monday. He has been out since the preseason with sciatica.
Los Angeles head coach JJ Redick said after Monday’s practice that James’ availability Tuesday is to be determined.
The injury caused James to miss a season opener for the first time in his career. However, when he steps on the court for the first time, the 40-year-old will become the first player in NBA history to play in 23 consecutive seasons.
“Obviously, it’s LeBron and just his presence and his ability is going to lift the team,” Lakers guard Austin Reaves said. “He’s a winner at the end of the day and he has been his whole career, and I expect him to do nothing but come in and be one of the best players.”
The Lakers have played well without their star to this point, getting 34.4 points per game from Luka Doncic and 28.3 from Austin Reaves. New center Deandre Ayton has added 16.2 points and 8.4 rebounds.
In a 119-95 victory on the road against the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday, Doncic scored 41 points with nine rebounds, Reaves had 25 with eight assists and Ayton added 20 points with 10 rebounds.
“Luka and AR … just led us, like they’ve done all season,” Redick said. “Those guys have done an amazing job of leading our basketball team.”
The Jazz have picked up their offense of late, winning two of their past three games by scoring at least 150 points in both victories. They needed two overtimes to reach that mark Sunday as they finished off a 150-147 double overtime victory at home over the Chicago Bulls.
The scoring surge is not completely out of the blue, with the Jazz reaching at least 129 points in three of the first four games of the season. They averaged 112.2 points through 10 games before reaching a season-best 152 in a regulation victory against the Indiana Pacers last week.
Lauri Markkanen scored 47 points in Sunday’s victory over the Bulls to raise his per-game average to a career-best 30.6 points. Keyonte George scored 33 points and Jusuf Nurkic had 14 rebounds.
Utah rallied from seven points down in the fourth quarter to force overtime and came back from a 15-point third quarter deficit as Markkanen scored 25 points in the second half. George gave the Jazz the victory on a 3-pointer with 2.0 seconds left in the second OT.
“These are the games that you want to play. Obviously, they’re a lot of fun,” Markkanen told the Salt Lake Tribune. “We wish that we got it done in the regulation, obviously, but, I mean, you wouldn’t change a double overtime game. Those are fun.”
The Lakers and Jazz will meet again Sunday at Utah.
