Mar 22, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) and Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) on the sidelines against the Chicago Bulls during the first half at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images

Luka Doncic's Dominant Showing Lands LeBron James' Support

Originally posted on Fastbreak on SI | By Justin Grasso | Last updated Sep 7, 2025 10:05 PM ET

Luka Doncic’s dominant campaign on the EuroBasket stage continued this weekend.

The Los Angeles Lakers star helped Slovenia defeat Italy to advance to the next stage of the tournament.

After the game took place, Doncic landed support from the superstar teammate, LeBron James. Although James is watching from a distance, he’s keeping a close eye on his teammate this summer, as they enter the first full season playing on the same team.

via @FullCourtPass: LeBron James Instagram story

LeBron James Instagram story pic.twitter.com/4yVGCie5Ez
— Fullcourtpass (@Fullcourtpass) September 7, 2025

On Sunday, Doncic finished the matchup against Italy with 42 points. He made it a double-double performance by coming down with 10 rebounds. Slovenia squeezed out an 84-77 victory.

Sunday’s game was the sixth outing for Doncic this summer. He’s averaging 46 percent from the field, but hitting on just 32 percent of his threes (5.8 attempts per game).

Although he’s not shooting as efficiently as he typically does, Doncic has been averaging 34 points throughout the tournament, as well as 7.2 assists and 3.2 steals. He is leading all scorers at EuroBasket so far this year.

When Doncic wraps up his run at EuroBasket, he’ll have very little downtime before he’s back with the Lakers, working on his next stint playing alongside LeBron James.

Last year, Doncic was going into another year with the Dallas Mavericks after a long run beyond the Western Conference Finals. While Doncic was looking to lead the Mavs back to the NBA Finals, the organization had other plans.

The Lakers and the Mavericks struck one of the most shocking trades in NBA history ahead of last year’s deadline. In his prime, Luka was sent to the Lakers. He got a chance to appear in 28 games down the stretch.

Averaging 35 minutes of action, Luka Doncic put up 28.6 points per game, while shooting 44 percent from the field and 38 percent from three during his regular-season stretch with the Lakers. He also accounted for 8.1 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game.

With LeBron playing on a player option, the 2025-2026 NBA season could serve as the first and last full season with LeBron and Luka on the Lakers. While LeBron James hasn’t revealed much about his future beyond this season, the Lakers hope that the two stars can figure out their chemistry for next year, leading the Lakers well beyond the first round, where they came up short last season.

LeBron and Luka will reunite later this month for the start of training camp.