Luka Doncic was lifted by LeBron James' pregame pep talk ahead of his Los Angeles Lakers debut. (More Sports News)
♐Doncic played 24 minutes and finished with 14 points on his Lakers bow on Monday, helping his new team to a 132-113 win over the Utah Jazz.
✃It was Doncic's first game since he had featured on Christmas Day for the Dallas Mavericks.
𒊎In the Lakers' pregame huddle, veteran James was heard telling Doncic to "be your f****** self... Don't fit in, fit the f*** out. Be yourself."
For Doncic, it was all the motivation he needed.
🐠"For him to say something like that just feels amazing," Doncic said.
𓄧"It gives me confidence. And after that speech, it [gave me] chills. I was just happy to be a part of it.
❀"I was a little bit nervous before [the game]. I don't remember the last time I was nervous before the game. But once I stepped on the court, it was fun. And just being out there again felt amazing.
🦩"Since I came here, I just wanted to play with them. Every game I saw, they played amazing, very connected, and for me, I just [wanted] to be there with them.
🥀"It's a new team. New everything. But the way they helped me, it was just a lot of support for me. You could see when I came to the arena, I saw all the Luka jerseys. It was just a surreal feeling."
🦩James top-scored for the Lakers with 24 points, adding either eight assists and seven rebounds. Austin Reaves finished with 22 points, nine rebounds and four assists.
🌜Lakers coach JJ Redick was impressed with how his star players combined.
🦩"I thought our three main guys did a nice job of playing off of each other," Redick said.
ཧ"Sometimes you can have agendas in a game. I felt like this for our group was a no agenda game beyond winning a basketball game and playing the right way."
