Lakers welcome Luka Magic to Los Angeles on memorable night

Luka Dončić finally took the court as a Laker and while nerves were aplenty from player to fans, it was an electric atmosphere for the debut of the franchise’s future.

LOS ANGELES - You can stop pinching yourself. It’s not a dream. Luka Magic was unveiled in Los Angeles on Monday night.

The game was almost an afterthought, given that the Lakers cruised to a 132-113 win over the Jazz, leading by as many as 34.

This night was all about Luka Dončić and the energy from Angelenos was palpable well before arrival at Crypto.com Arena.

The typically fashionably late Lakers fans packed the stadium quickly and every fan was greeted with a Luka 77 shirt on their chair. Hours before the game, LeBron James donned the shirt himself as a co-sign of this new pairing.

An hour before tip-off, Luka came out to thunderous applause for his pregame warmup.

DJ Roueche greeted Luka with some Serbian music, something he enjoyed during his pregame routine in Dallas. The Lakers’ newest star was grinning ear to ear once he recognized his home country’s music blasting through the speakers.

There was one more surprise before the action started. It wasn’t LeBron who was the final starter announced for the Lakers. Instead, Luka received that honor and the crowd cheered vivaciously.

“Yeah, he texted me in the morning,” Luka said postgame. “He said, ‘Whatever you want.’ For him to text me that, it’s just amazing, so it shows what kind of person he is and he let me have my moment, so I really appreciate it.”

Once the action began, there was nervous energy from the fans and Luka alike. They cheered anytime he touched the ball. His first assist was a lob to Hayes and when he hammered the ball in, the reaction mimicked that of a game-winner.

Despite the excitement, Dončić struggled initially, a natural result of missing over a month to injury. Fans sighed at every miss, wanting to cheer on their new starter at every opportunity. Typically accurate pass remained impressive but were just slightly off the mark.

Luckily, the Lakers have been a roll and, with the Utah Jazz competing with the New Orleans Pelicans at the bottom of the West, the hosts had plenty of wiggle room to dominate while implementing a new player into the rotation.

Admittedly, Luka never found his groove in this game. He went 1-7 from 3-point land and scored just 14 points, matching his lowest point total of the season. A combination of nerves, rust and returning injury wasn’t exactly a perfect equation to have a successful Lakers debut.

And yes, even Luka, a player in his seventh season who was in the NBA Finals last June, had nerves before Monday’s game.

“The way they received me, everybody, it was amazing to see,” Dončić said. “I was a little nervous before. I mean, when was the last time I was nervous before a game? But once I stepped on the court, it was fun.”

This was the biggest debut of a Lakers player since the arrival of Anthony Davis. And given what a shock the idea of Luka being a Laker was even 10 days ago, it’s understandable he will need time to adjust.

He’s also now one of the biggest stars on a team with global interest, which will require adjustment to handle, too.

For the foreseeable future, he will attract large crowds during his pregame shooting. And he’ll draw similar crowds at postgame pressers, too, as he found out on Monday.

“I think he handled it well,” JJ Redick said. “Knowing Luka, whether he will admit this or not, like there was probably a little bit of nerves, playing for the Lakers for the first time and the anticipation that our fans have, this building had, his teammates had, our coaching staff had. He kind of gets that. He sees that.

“I thought he’s handled it really well and he played really well tonight…Tonight was not – he didn’t make it about Luka. He made it about playing good basketball and playing Laker basketball.”

This will all take time to adjust, but even while they figure things out, the Lakers keep on winning.

They have been victorious in six straight games, sit in the fourth seed in the West on a tiebreaker and, if the biggest problem is implementing one of the best young stars in the NBA, that’s exactly the kind of problem every franchise — except the Mavs — want to have.

“There’s gonna be there’s gonna be growing pains,” Austin Reaves said. “I don’t think anybody’s naive to that. But when you bring a guy in that is so unselfish, passes the ball the way that he passes the ball — he’s one of the greatest players in the game right now, if not the best — it’s much easier than I think what is expected outside of our team.”

Monday was a taste of what’s to come for the purple and gold, who have one more game before heading into the All-Star break. But even that glimpse showed just how special this season and this era of Lakers basketball could be.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.