There was so much chatter leading up to tipoff on Tuesday night in Los Angeles because the game between the Lakers and Utah Jazz marked the return of LeBron James, who would be making his season debut after missing the first 14 games.
Even with all the extra noise surrounding the game, the Jazz looked like it didn’t faze them a bit as they jumped out to an easy and early 11-point lead.
But as the Jazz went cold in the third quarter, Luka Doncic caught fire, scoring 17 of his game-high 37 points in the third period alone. James had an 11-point, 12-assist double-double in his first game of the season.
While the second half and result was disappointing for the Jazz, there were still highlights, especially with Lauri Markkanen and Keyonte George, who combined for 65 points on Tuesday.
With Markkanen, opposing coaches are finding it difficult to make a sound defensive plan for the unique Jazz man.
Turns out, having a 7-footer who rarely needs to dribble, constantly is coming off of off-ball screens, shoots efficiently at a high volume and is also a lob threat is a good thing.
“When we were doing our coaches meeting this morning, I had to fact check some of the numbers on their off-ball screen volume, but it’s very real. I mean, he’s getting about 31 off-ball screens a game,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “I’m not comparing him to Steph Curry, but there’s a similarity to the scout in terms of your awareness of him … you just have to have heightened awareness of him at all times.
“And he, he’s capable, as we’ve seen over the last couple games, of just having these incredible scoring outbursts. So I think it starts with just the awareness and not allowing separation in space, similar to a guy like Steph, when he’s off ball.”
Markkanen finished the game with 31 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals.
But it was Keyonte George that paced the Jazz with 34 points, eight assists, four rebounds and two steals, with 23 of his points coming in the first half.
It was a short trip to California for the Jazz, who will be back home to take on the reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday at the Delta Center for NBA Cup action.
The Thunder are currently leading the league with a 14-1 record on the season. They’ll play the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday in OKC before heading to Utah.
