LOS ANGELES – When the Los Angeles Lakers opened up the 2025-26 NBA season against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night, there was a major, 6 feet 9 inch hole in the lineup with LeBron James having been ruled out for at least four weeks due to a nerve injury. Without James, the Lakers sputtered to a 119-109 loss to the Warriors, and head coach JJ Redick was left wishing he had his 40-year-old star on the court.
The Warriors began employing a zone defense against the Lakers during the first half of the game, and JJ Redick bemoaned the fact that he did not have LeBron James out there to carve up the zone.
“It’s hard to forget about LeBron. The realty is when you’re focused on the group that you have, you got to make the group work. Sometimes you can be like, ‘oh my God, we’re gonna get LeBron back at some point, it’s awesome,” Redick said after the loss. “But you are focused. To be honest with you, I did have one moment in the first half, a few possessions we couldn’t score against the zone, I was like, ‘it would be great to have LeBron to throw it to at the high post.”
Without James, Doncic led the way for the Lakers against the Warriors, finishing with a game-high 43 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists. He shot 17-of-27 (63 percent) from the field and 7-of-10 from the free-throw line. But it wasn’t enough as the Warriors held off a late Lakers’ rally to grab the win.
While Doncic shouldered the offensive load in the Lakers’ season opener, Redick was quick to mention that he is not concerned about Doncic burning out due to having to carry the offense in such a manner.
Every game is different,” Redick said. “I’m not concerned about that.”
When James does return to the lineup, he will presumably slot in alongside Doncic, Austin Reaves, Deandre Ayton and Rui Hachimura as the Lakers’ starting lineup. While Redick has made it a point to say that the starting lineup will be fluid and could change depending on matchups, the aforementioned group would appear to be the regular lineup provided a clean injury report.
Last season, James appeared in 70 games for the Lakers at a little over 34 minutes per game. He averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 1.0 steals with splits of 51.3 percent shooting from the field, 37.6 percent shooting from the three-point line and 78.2 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
