LeBron James made his long-awaited return to the hardwood for the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night, and made a meaningful impact in his season debut. While he was away, the numbers tell us that Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves proved that they can produce winning basketball even without number 23.
In 199 minutes of action before LeBron stepped back on the court, the Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves two-man lineup outscored opponents by 17.8 points per 100 possessions, per databallr's WOWY lineup data. They weren't just posting elite statistics, but impacting winning. And they did it while only allowing 108.