NEW YORK — On the one-year anniversary of completing one of the most shocking trades in NBA history to acquire Luka Doncic, the Los Angeles Lakers were back in the exact same place they were when the deal was consummated, visiting Madison Square Garden to play the New York Knicks.
With 12 months for the dust to settle and Doncic to make his mark on L.A. after spending the first 5½ seasons of his career with the Dallas Mavericks, Feb. 1 provided a natural prompt to ask the question: How much closer are the Lakers now to a championship than they were then?
“I think we’re in a good spot,” Doncic said after finishing with 30 points, 15 rebounds and 8 assists in Sunday’s 112-100 loss to the Knicks. “Obviously, got some work to do. … Today we obviously missed a lot of good looks, but I think we have a great group.”
LeBron James, who was announced Sunday as an All-Star reserve — joining Doncic, who was voted in as a Western Conference starter earlier this month — shared some of his teammate’s optimism, saying, “I like this group.”
But he also acknowledged the unknown.
“We’ve had some really good moments. We have some not so good moments. We want to continue to try to build off of that,” James said. “It’s been tough all season as far as dealing with injuries. Guys in and guys out. Unfortunately our All-Star 2 guard has been out for a minute and that’s a big piece of our team. So, it’s kind of hard to see what we can really, truly be.”
The third Lakers All-Star James was referring to is Austin Reaves, who was not named a reserve by the Western Conference coaches despite averaging a career-best 26.6 points per game.
The Knicks game was his 19th missed game in a row because of a strained left calf. Reaves was considered a game-time decision against New York, and downgraded to out shortly before tipoff, according to Lakers coach JJ Redick.
“He’s day-to-day, game-to-game, however you want to phrase it,” Redick said. “We’ll hopefully have him for Tuesday [against the Brooklyn Nets], but he’s got to feel 100% confident.”
Reaves, James and Doncic have shared the court in just eight of the Lakers’ 48 games this season.
Even with cascading injuries for the three, L.A. is now 29-19 after the Knicks loss. Last season, they beat the Knicks 128-112 on Feb. 1 to improve to 28-19.
When Doncic arrived to L.A. with Maxi Kleber, for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a future first-round pick, he was also sidelined with a left calf strain, coincidentally enough. His injury caused him to miss 22 straight games.
“It’s definitely hard with a calf,” Doncic said when asked about Reaves. “I’ve been through that. It’s not an easy injury. So, we just want him to be healthy. If he’s not ready to come back, don’t come back. But obviously, we’d love to have him out there. We can’t wait for his return.”
Meanwhile, the Lakers’ locker room will wait to see if Thursday’s trade deadline will come and go without any more roster-shaking moves like last season.
“We’re right there in the playoff chase in the West,” Redick said. “And, I think our guys have been great all season. They’ve really done a nice job of kind of responding to the ups and downs that a season presents. … I think whether you’re a GM, a coach, a player, you’re never going to look at a roster and say, ‘This is a perfect roster, and all the pieces fit perfectly together.’ It’s just, it doesn’t really happen a lot.
“The guys have done a great job over the last month, month and change, of trying to play for each other and play good basketball together.”
