LOS ANGELES — There’s an ironic twist that the Lakers’ first game after the NBA’s trade deadline on Thursday night was against the Golden State Warriors.
Because it was the Warriors who became synonymous with a “two-timeline” plan – a strategy to extend Golden State’s championship-contending seasons, led by franchise icon Steph Curry, while also surrounding a veteran core with young players (Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, Brandin Podziemski) who could help bridge the gap to a successful post-Curry era.
In a way, the Lakers are now operating on a version of their own two-timeline plan after the acquisitions of 25-year-old, five-time All-NBA selection Luka Doncic and 23-year-old center Mark Williams this week.
The hope is that Doncic, specifically, will lead the Lakers to a prosperous post-LeBron James era while also increasing the team’s chances of competing for a title this season.
And James showed on Thursday why he and the current version of the Lakers are worth continuing to invest in.
With Doncic’s Lakers debut likely not coming until Monday night, the 40-year-old James had a season-high 42 points, 17 rebounds and eight assists as the Lakers blew most of a 26-point lead before hanging on to beat the Warriors, 120-112, at Crypto.com Arena.
“To be honest with you, we gave up a lot of uncontested 3s,” Coach JJ Redick said. “They had 28 3-point attempts in the first half and 21 of those were uncontested. Now, some of those were by people like Draymond [Green] that we wanted to be uncontested. But that’s just too many. The problem is, when they start making 3s, there’s an overreaction to that. And so a lot of the breakdowns in our defense in the second half was actually us just giving up layups. And making up our own rules. And not having a low man.”
The victory, which put the Lakers at 30-19 on the season, was their fourth straight, the eighth in their last nine games and 10th in their past 12.
With his 3-pointer that gave the Lakers a late 115-106 lead with a little over one minute left in the game, James became just the second 40-year-old in NBA history to score at least 40 in a game.
The other: Michael Jordan, who scored 43 points on Feb. 21, 2003, four days after turning 40.
“What do I think? That I’m old – that’s what I think,” James said. “I need a glass of wine and some sleep. That’s the first thing I think.”
James was a focal point of the Lakers’ early surge that led to them building the 26-point lead late in the second quarter, with Doncic watching from the bench for the second straight game since being acquired in a stunning trade with Dallas last weekend.
The four-time MVP knocked down a trio of 3-pointers in a 38-second stretch – the last one a 34-footer from the Lakers’ midcourt logo – to give them a 45-23 lead early in the second quarter that grew to 69-43 before halftime. James scored 18 in the second quarter.
“With LeBron, we’ve run out of words and superlatives and descriptions to sort of capture what he’s doing at this stage of his career and at this age,” Redick said. “It continues to be remarkable, it really does.”
The Warriors closed the quarter strong, cutting their deficit to 69-49 at halftime and eventually trimming the margin to five points in the fourth after a Curry 3-pointer got Golden State within 109-104.
Curry (37 points on 13-of-35 shooting to go with seven rebounds and four assists) scored more than half of his point total (19) in the fourth. He finished 6 for 20 from behind the arc, with the 20 attempts matching the fifth-most of his career.
But the Lakers held on with late-game free throws from James and shot-making from Austin Reaves.
Reaves finished with 23 points, making 15 of 16 free throws to go with four assists and three steals.
“It was the only shot that actually felt good in my hand,” Reaves said of his free-throw shooting. “But, just trying to stay aggressive. Just, get to my spots. Be crafty. Just try to continue to play the game the right way.”
Gabe Vincent had 15 points (five 3-pointers). Jarred Vanderbilt added five points, 14 rebounds and three assists in 21 minutes.
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