EL SEGUNDO — The news the Lakers shared shortly after Thursday’s practice made multiple things clear: LeBron James will miss Opening Night for the first time in his career because of sciatica (nerve pain) on his right side when the Lakers host the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 21 to kick off their 2025-26 regular season.
And the Lakers will likely have to play several games to start the season without James, who the team said will be reevaluated in late October or early November.
“It’s a big change,” Luka Doncic said after Saturday’s practice ahead of Sunday’s preseason matchup against the Golden State Warriors. “He’s a great player. He can help us a lot. But at the end of the day, our mentality needs to be next man up.
“We got a group of guys [who] 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.”
James had already been a limited participant in practices, with the Lakers previously saying James was dealing with nerve irritation in the glute, before the team announced the updated status of the 40-year-old star forward who’s entering an unprecedented 23rd NBA season.
Coach JJ Redick said after Saturday’s practice that James has been on the court “every day”.
“We knew that he was dealing with the nerve irritation,” Redick said. “You hope that he’s back soon. Those things can be tricky. 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 the preseason games.”
Sunday could provide the Lakers with their first opportunity at what they’ll look like close to whole without James in the lineup.
Doncic could make his preseason debut against the Warriors at Crypto.com Arena, with his status for the matchup not having been determined as of Saturday afternoon.
The Lakers have three other preseason games after Sunday: Tuesday at the Phoenix Suns, Wednesday versus the Dallas Mavericks in Las Vegas and Friday versus the Sacramento Kings in Los Angeles.
“We got to talk about it – JJ and my team,” Doncic said about Sunday. “But I’m probably going to end up playing two games of the preseason.”
Doncic fully participated in Saturday’s practice after being a modified participant in the team’s three practices earlier in the week and being a full participant to open training camp last week before sitting out the Lakers’ first two preseason games last weekend.
The 26-year-old star said the change in his participation status was because he played for the Slovenian national team in EuroBasket from early August to early September.
“Obviously, it’s a long season ahead,” Doncic said, “so just because of that.”
Marcus Smart, who sat out the first two games because of Achilles tendinopathy, is set to make his preseason debut Sunday. Austin Reaves will suit up against the Warriors after playing in the Oct. 3 loss to the Suns in Palm Desert and sitting out the Oct. 5 loss to the Warriors.
“It is unclear what the starting lineup is gonna be,” Redick said. “That’s the reality until [James] is back. We’ll have to figure that out.”
After the 2024-25 season ended and throughout the offseason, Doncic expressed eagerness for training camp and preseason, and the time it would provide for the entire team – but especially him, James and Reaves – to further build their chemistry after having limited practice time following the trade that brought Doncic to Los Angeles in early February.
Doncic still feels he’s gotten value out of the time with James over the last couple of weeks, despite James being limited.
“It’s not everything about on the court – that’s what I’ve been saying,” Doncic said. “It’s about chemistry off the court, too. Now it’s a little more off the court, but while we watched practices this week, we talked a lot about it.”
Redick mentioned that he’s noticed improved chemistry within the team’s “small interactions” during a scrimmage that ended in a tie Sunday.
“To me, the best teams, the best groups, the best organizations in any field, small interactions are so important,” he said. “And how many small interactions can you have in a game? You should have thousands. ‘Good screen. Good job. Good pass. I got you next time.’
“That’s what we’re starting to see from our group. We weren’t great with that last year. That’s part of our championship communication. That stuff is happening in real time, and we’re really happy with the progress [we’ve] made. Still got a ways to go, but it’s happening.”
WARRIORS AT LAKERS
When: 6:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV/Radio: Spectrum SportsNet/710 AM