Luka Doncic and LeBron James are headed to Miami as the Los Angeles Lakers visit the Miami Heat on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Doncic leads the NBA in scoring (33.0 points) and ranks third in assists (8.5).<\/p>\n
James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, is set to return to Miami, where he led the Heat to four straight Eastern Conference titles (2011-14) and a pair of NBA championships.<\/p>\n
The Lakers (44-25) have won seven straight games, including five contests against teams currently in playoff position. Doncic and James combined for 70 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists in Los Angeles’ 124-116 win over Houston on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Heat (38-31) are 1-2 since Bam Adebayo pumped in a franchise-record 83 points, breaking a mark that had been held by James.<\/p>\n
Adebayo missed Miami’s most recent game due to tightness in his right calf, and he is listed as day-to-day going into the game with the Lakers.<\/p>\n
Fellow Heat starter Andrew Wiggins (toe injury) also is listed day-to-day.<\/p>\n
Adebayo leads Miami in starts (60) followed by Davion Mitchell (58), Wiggins (57) and Norman Powell (50).<\/p>\n
Second-year player Pelle Larsson is — perhaps surprisingly — fifth on that list with 45 starts.<\/p>\n
After all, Larsson — a second-round pick in 2024 — made just eight starts as a rookie.<\/p>\n
“He’s gaining more trust and confidence,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Larsson. “He’s been reliable since Day One, but he made a big jump in the final six weeks of last season. That propelled him to having a great summer and training camp and right into this season.”<\/p>\n
Indeed, Larsson’s scoring average has more than doubled from last season (4.6) to the current campaign (10.8). His effective field-goal percentage, which accounts for the value of a 3-point shot, has improved from 51.7 to 55.1, and his rebound average has doubled to 3.4. His assists are also up, from 1.2 to 3.3.<\/p>\n
All of that is important because Tyler Herro, who was a first-time All-Star last season, has missed 47 games in the current campaign.<\/p>\n
Herro’s scoring average of 21.4 is second-best on the Heat. Larsson, though, brings a different energy, more likely to draw a charge as opposed to hitting a 3-pointer.<\/p>\n
The Lakers have won their two most recent games against the Heat, although both of those contests were in Los Angeles. When the teams last played in Miami — on Dec. 4, 2024 — the Heat prevailed, 134-93.<\/p>\n
Then again, at that date, the Lakers had not yet acquired Doncic, who arrived in Los Angeles on Feb. 2, 2025.<\/p>\n
In 13 career games against the Heat, Doncic is averaging 25.8 points, 9.1 rebounds and 7.5 assists.<\/p>\n
James, 41, still is performing at a high level, averaging 21.4 points, 6.8 assists and 5.6 rebounds.<\/p>\n
As for playing on consecutive nights, James said: “You can’t harp on the previous game too long because there’s another one coming up. It’s like the wild, wild West.”<\/p>\n
At this point of the season, James said, it’s already like playoff basketball. And, James was asked this week if he is amazed by his own play given his age.<\/p>\n
“It definitely does surprise me,” he said.<\/p>\n
James also said he is “banged up” injury-wise, although he managed to play 34 minutes on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
–Field Level Media<\/p>\n
\n Copyright 2026 STATS LLC and Field Level Media. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Field Level Media is strictly prohibited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luka Doncic and LeBron James are headed to Miami as the Los Angeles Lakers visit the Miami Heat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-198556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}