LOS ANGELES – When the Los Angeles Lakers opened up the 2025-26 NBA season against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night, there was a major, 6 feet 9 inch hole in the lineup with LeBron James having been ruled out for at least four weeks due to a nerve injury. Without James, the Lakers sputtered to a 119-109 loss to the Warriors, and head coach JJ Redick was left wishing he had his 40-year-old star on the court.

The Warriors began employing a zone defense against the Lakers during the first half of the game, and JJ Redick bemoaned the fact that he did not have LeBron James out there to carve up the zone.

“It’s hard to forget about LeBron. The realty is when you’re focused on the group that you have, you got to make the group work. Sometimes you can be like, ‘oh my God, we’

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