The Los Angeles Lakers are ready to take on a new challenge with their All-Star trio. It will be the first time that LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves will play a full regular season together. Last season, the team’s Big 3 only appeared in 21 games together. Doncic was a late addition to the team after he was traded by the Dallas Mavericks in February and appeared in 28 games.
The Lakers have championship aspirations and believe the three stars can lead them to the top. Last season, Los Angeles finished the regular season with a 50-32 record and secured the third spot in the Western Conference. However, the team couldn’t last and was eliminated in the first round of the postseason against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Heading into the 2025-26 NBA season, the star trio promised on Monday’s Media Day that they’ll have a bigger season together.
According to Reaves, the team is highly excited for their upcoming first full season.
“The eagerness levels are very high,” he said. “I felt like we had good synergy with the three of us last year towards the end of the year and that’s just basically being thrown in the fire after the trade.”
Doncic also weighed in on working on his chemistry with Reaves and James.
“I think just going through practices, it’s going to help us a lot,” the five-time All-Star said. “Me, LeBron and [Austin Reaves], I think we’re the leaders of this group and us communicating, us practicing some things on the floor will help us a lot.”
Even James is looking forward to playing a full season with Doncic.
Lakers’ Rui Hachimura speaks on playing “easy” with James and Doncic
Having teammates like Doncic and James makes it easier for other players to play basketball. The two stars tend to get a lot of attention for their elite scoring. This usually leads to them getting double-teamed, getting their teammates open opportunities.
Lakers forward Rui Hachimura is one of the players who have benefited from it. The Japanese star spoke about it during the team’s Media Day.
“Luka posting, and LeBron too, they get a lot of attention. So for me it’s just an easy game. Most of the time I’m wide open. They’re always watching them, so that’s why I got a lot of those back cuts,” Hachimura said. “I kind of figured it out throughout the season, those are easy points for me. And it’s not a set play or anything, I just have to kind of read it.”
Last season, Hachimura averaged 13.1 points, five rebounds and 1.4 assists for the Lakers. He’ll have a lot of chances to benefit from having James and Doncic as teammates.
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen on Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
