EL SEGUNDO — Here’s what they’re not going to do.
The JJ Redick-coached Lakers are not going to treat the 2025 playoffs like just a first take.
The LeBron James-led Lakers are not going to put off till next year what they can accomplish this year.
The Luka Doncic-led Lakers are not going to let a suddenly long, bright runway soften the blunt-force appeal of the moment.
The third-seeded Lakers are not going to step on the court for Game 1 of their first-round Western Conference Playoff series against the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday and take the opportunity for granted.
No, they’re a bunch of “guys that are willing to go to war,” in Doncic’s words, soft-spoken hyperbole, athlete-speak at its finest.
They’re gamers, winners, realists: They know there are no guarantees, no telling what’s around the corner, and no time like the present.
No magic wands, either. No fending off Father Time forever.
And no pairing on Earth as special as the duo set to do battle together for the first time in a playoff setting, Luka and LeBron performing at almost astronomical levels, somewhere near the Von Karman Line – even though one of them is 40 years old.
I still don’t understand why anyone – almost everyone? – assumed that doing the Doncic deal meant the Lakers were taking a gap year on their expectations of exceptionalism.
I suppose folks saw an imperfect roster, short on talent in the post. I saw a roster that might actually be perfect for their 3-ball-happy, smallish-ball-loving modern head coach.
Maybe people watched the window that was closing be thrust wide open, and it felt so good to breathe the fresh air that it took off some of the pressure that had been building. But I saw a team starring LeBron James and Luka Doncic. Today.
I saw opponents having to deal with a couple of the NBA’s coldest on-court killers, big guys built for the biggest of moments, both of them basketball-brilliant, with permanent track records to back…
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