LOS ANGELES – Although LeBron James will be sidelined for the Los Angeles Lakers’ opening night game against the Golden State Warriors, the game will still have plenty of star power with Luka Doncic on one side and Stephen Curry on the other.
While Luka Doncic and Stephen Curry probably won’t be guarding each other much, if at all during the Lakers and Warriors opening night game, Doncic revealed after Lakers’ practice on Monday that he was looking forward to taking the court against his fellow All-Star.
“As an opponent, it’s obviously very hard, very hard to guard him. He’s moving all the time, he can shoot from anywhere,” Doncic said. “I feel like it’s hard, but also exciting. Going against a player like that, it’s very exciting, and for the first game to open up a season, it’s going to be a great game.”
The Lakers and Warriors have developed a bit of an in-state rivalry over the years, going to back to before Doncic joined the Lakers. The last time these two teams met in the playoffs was in 2023 when the Lakers eliminated the Warriors in six games in the Western Conference Semifinals.
A big part of the rivalry centers around James and Curry and their status as two of the faces of the league even as they approach the twilight of their careers. While Doncic doesn’t quite ascribe to the rivalry aspect, he did acknowledge the magnitude of the game overall.
“I don’t know if it’s a rivalry or not, but it’s’ obviously Steph against LeBron, everybody in the world will be watching. Obviously going against Steph is very exciting, but it’s going to be tough,” Doncic said. “I don’t know if it’s a rivalry, but for sure it’s going to be an exciting game.”
Lakers head coach JJ Redick also echoed Doncic’s sentiment in that the game has a little more edge to it than just another regular season game.
“The Steph, LeBron rivalry, whatever you want to call it, that matchup has always been awesome for whatever teams they’ve been on in league itself,” Redick said. “I know we had some great games against those guys last year, being a part of that was really cool.”
The Lakers will open the season with three of their first four games being at home. Following the Warriors game, they have two days off before matching up against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday, Oct. 24. They then travel up to face the Sacramento Kings on Sunday Oct. 26 before coming back home for the second night of a back-to-back on Monday Oct. 27 against the Portland Trail Blazers.
