“Our Mentality Needs To Be Next Man Up”: Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Dončić Reacts To LeBron James Injury
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James will miss the start of the 2025-26 NBA season because of sciatic nerve irritation on his right side, which means superstar Luka Dončić will have to take his game to another level for the Lakers to stay afloat in the rugged Western Conference.
It’s unknown when James will make his season debut for the Lakers, who face the Golden State Warriors on opening night.
“It’s a big change. He’s a great player. He can help us a lot,” Dončić said of James’ injury. “But at the end of the day, our mentality needs to be next man up. We got a group of guys that have been practicing, and hopefully, LeBron can join us as soon as possible. We are going to obviously need him. But our mentality has got to be next man up. That’s it.”
The Lakers were expected to start Dončić, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, James and Deandre Ayton this season. It’s unknown who will start instead of James.
“We knew this going into camp, so it wasn’t like it’s changed anything for how we want to practice or what our philosophies are with these preseason games,” Lakers head coach JJ Redick said. “It is unclear who’s gonna be, what the starting lineup is gonna be. That’s the reality, until he is back. We’ll have to figure that out.”
Dončić, who lost a significant amount of weight this summer, appeared to be arguably the best basketball player in the world during EuroBasket. He averaged 34.7 points for Slovenia.
Dončić played in 28 games with the Lakers last season after the Dallas Mavericks traded him in February. The talented point-forward averaged 28.2 points, 8.1 rebounds, 7.5 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.4 blocks with the Purple and Gold.
Dončić and James played 23 games together last season. The Lakers went 15–8 in those games.
Dončić averaged 27.7 points, 7.6 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.4 blocks alongside James, who averaged 23.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, 6.7 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.6 blocks next to Dončić.
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