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LOS ANGELES — The Utah Jazz have often been a footnote in Los Angeles Lakers’ history.
The pick the Lakers used to select Magic Johnson? Originally owned by the Jazz.
The team that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar broke the NBA’s all-time scoring record against? Yep, the Jazz.
Kobe Bryant’s final game when he dropped 60? Against the Jazz.
So, of course, it was the Jazz that were on the schedule for Luka Doncic’s first game in purple and gold. And, once again, the Lakers fans left with another fond memory.
Doncic finished with 14 points, five rebounds and four assists as the Lakers routed the Jazz 132-113 Monday at Crypto.com Arena.
“Tonight’s not about us,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said before the game.
That much was obvious.
You could have thrown the Washington Generals or the nearby Sierra Canyon Prep basketball team out against the Lakers and the NBA still would have descended upon Los Angeles.
Monday’s game was about the NBA’s most famous franchise welcoming its latest single-name superstar — Wilt, Kareem, Magic, Shaq, Kobe, LeBron, and now Luka. It wasn’t a celebration; it felt more like a coronation for a new king of Los Angeles and potentially a new era of the NBA.
Long before tipoff time, Crypto.com Arena was full, with many fans standing around just trying to take a video or get a mere glimpse of Doncic’s warm-up shots.
The first time Doncic touched the ball, the crowd rose in anticipation. When he dropped his first assist — a short lob to Jaxon Hayes — the fans erupted. And when he hit his first shot — a step-back 3-pointer over Walker Kessler — the trade that shocked the NBA world felt like it finally sank in fully.
Yes, Doncic is actually a member of the Lakers.
The Jazz offered little resistance to Los Angeles’ joyous night.
Doncic smiled as he zipped passes across the court and took his patented step-backs. LeBron James, seemingly freed from an oversized offensive burden, ran wild, finishing with 24 points, eight assists, and seven rebounds.
“I don’t think we’ve seen anywhere close to kind of the peak of those two playing together, and what that’s going to look like,” Hardy said. “I felt like there were so many other areas of the game where we struggled. I’m not taking anything away from Luka and LeBron — they both played good games — but I didn’t feel like, ultimately, that’s why we lost.”
To be fair, the new superstar duo didn’t need to be anywhere close to their peak against Utah. The two mostly felt each other out against the overmatched Jazz.
In the end, Utah may not have been ready for such a bright spotlight. The Lakers led by 12 points in the first quarter and 25 at halftime, making easy work of a team that wasn’t used to being in such moments.
“We got our butts kicked,” Hardy said. “We got physically dominated in a lot of ways tonight.”
The Jazz got cooked when it switched on defense with James, Doncic and Austin Reaves feeding off the hyped crowd to build an early Lakers advantage. And once a couple of shots fell, Utah let go of the rope pretty quickly.
Hardy said Utah’s attention to detail wasn’t there Monday, and the overall defensive activity was “pretty poor.”
That was a bit of a disappointment considering the moment.
Hardy spoke before the game about how he wanted his team to lean into the heightened energy and enjoy the game’s big stage. He left a bit surprised about how things ended up — not from a result standpoint but more so an energy one.
“It’s not what I expected,” he said. “But I get that there’s probably nerves, there’s probably a lot of things and emotions that are going into playing in that game. I’m not trying to make an excuse for anybody or us as a group. We didn’t play well, but I almost was expecting the game to be messier, like more reckless, more crashing into each other and flying around.”
Instead, the Jazz, he said, tried to “play too perfect” and the result was anything but Monday.
The game gave a young Utah team a taste of what it takes to compete at the highest levels of the sport. Jordan Clarkson, John Collins and Lauri Markkanen (though, only in a play-in game) are the only players on the roster that have played in playoff-like games.
Utah’s first foray into that type of environment didn’t end well; and now, it’s about trying to learn from it.
“We’ve got to learn how to not be rattled by opponents big time shots or stuff like that,” Kessler said. “That’s a continual training process and continual learning process. … Regardless of what people will say about us, I think we’re very resilient, and I think that we’ll come out. We’ll lose some tough ones, but in the long run, that’s going to do us well.”
It likely will, but on Monday, it felt like the Jazz were merely the ceremonial opponent for yet another major moment in Lakers history.
