Hey everyone, I’m Dan Woike and welcome to the Times Lakers Newsletter, our weekly check-in direct from inside the Lakers’ locker room to inside your email inbox — a road that, I assume, has some of the Los Angeles traffic that’s mildly annoying Luka Doncic.

Things are going pretty great around the Lakers right now, so let’s not run from that — let’s dig in on the biggest reason why.

LeBron’s season

Two hundred forty-one months ago, LeBron James won his first NBA Player of the Month award for a 12-game stretch in January. It was his second season in the league and it was clear that Cleveland’s days as a pushover were quickly moving behind them.

That month, the Cavs were 8-4 thanks to James averaging 26.5 points, 8.4 rebounds and 8.5 assists on .520 (FG%)/.400 (3-PT%)/.676 (FT%) shooting splits.

That team would miss this playoffs despite finishing over .500, the last time a James team would fail to make the postseason until his ill-timed pairing with Russell Westbrook in the 2021-22 season.

Tuesday, he won that award again for a record 41^st time (Kobe Bryant is second with 17 wins), becoming the oldest player ever to be honored for their play over a month. Playing in 11 of the Lakers’ 12 games in February, James averaged 29.3 points, 10.5 rebounds and 6.9 assists on .555/.443/.738 shooting splits with the Lakers winning 10 times — all while he anchored what’s become the NBA’s best defense with an incredible run of effort, attention, communication and execution.

It’s all kind of mind-boggling, the level of play we’re witnessing (pardon the LeBron pun), an all-time great season from a 40-year-old in any athletic profession and undoubtedly the best by a NBA senior citizen in league history. Tuesday, in the Lakers’ seventh straight win, James moved past 50,000 career points in regular- and postseason games, a number he actually moved past a handful of games earlier if stats from the NBA’s play-in tournament and In-Season Tournament Finals officially counted, which they don’t.

“It’s amazing. Watching him do this stuff at this age, it’s just unbelievable,” Doncic said postgame Tuesday. “Like 50k points… it’s I can’t even explain how insane that is. He might get to 70k, you never know.”

Doncic was joking, mostly, but the limits for James and the Lakers are being rewritten in front of us each time the team rips off a bunch of wins.

Beginning in late December when James began ceding possessions to Austin Reaves, he has become the NBA’s most precise counterpuncher, a deadly catch-and-shoot player who can still bully in the half court and who can run fly routes in transition.

He’s the team’s best catch-and-shoot player, making 48.3% on catch-and-shoot three-point attempts since Christmas. Only Luke Kennard, old friend Taurean Prince and Isaiah Joe have been better on catch-and-shoot threes since Dec. 25 and none of them have anywhere close to the on-ball responsibilities.

“I’m very comfortable playing off the ball and finding my spots, running the floor, getting the outlet pass from Luka, being on the backside of the defense if he’s either being blitzed in pick-and-rolls or switched in pick-and-rolls,” James said Tuesday. “He attracts so many eyes and bodies. I’ve been very blessed to be able to be able to be adaptable to whatever team I’ve been on throughout my career, to be able to change. And this is another instance.”

In the immediacy of the Doncic deal, James scoffed in the locker room at the notion that he would struggle playing alongside such a ball-dominant force. He’d found a way with Dwyane Wade in Miami and he’d figured it out with Kyrie Irving in Cleveland. This, he thought, wouldn’t be any different.

And it hasn’t been.

James’ spot-up shooting had been a dangerous weapon playing with Reaves. With Doncic AND Reaves sucking up possessions, it’s been lethal. Doncic, in particular, has created the kind of mismatches that make life incredibly easy for James.

“It’s kind of a pick your poison when you have two brainiacs when it comes to the game of basketball on the floor at the same time,” James said.

Heading into Thursday’s game with the Knicks, the Lakers are in second place in the West. They’ve won 23 of their last 31 games and 19 of their last 23 (best in the league since Jan. 15).

They’re only getting more comfortable with Doncic and they should be getting Reaves and Rui Hachimura back sooner than later.

Dreaming about another James championship run doesn’t seem like so much of a dream anymore. James is certainly playing like someone who believes.

“We wouldn’t be in the position we’re in without him playing at the level he’s been playing at,” JJ Redick said. “And that’s offensively and defensively. I think February 1st was the Knicks game (and the Doncic trade). And since early December, leaving Miami, he’s been the leader of our team by far and an incredible teammate and has given it on a nightly basis everything he could give.

“And he was much-needed. That level of play was much-needed.”

The close corner

Jarred Vanderbilt knows he’s going to be open in the corner, and his willingness to take and make those shots will determine his ability to be at his most effective.

He has made five of his last 12 threes, and only one attempt this season has come from anywhere but the corner.

But more important, Vanderbilt has been willing to shoot the wide-open shots, taking at least two attempts in three of his last four games.

As he left the arena Tuesday after going two-for-four from three, he told The Times that he knows he has to be willing to live with some misses in the name of being aggressive, that shooting with confidence and rhythm requires more than one attempt every few games.

So far so good. Through 16 games this season, he’s making 35% from three — a number that would be his career best by a fairly wide margin.

Song of the Week

“Run to the Hills” by Iron Maiden

Last week after leading the Lakers to a win against the Clippers, LeBron James appeared on Scott Van Pelt’s “SportsCenter. “ And while he’s certainly not the first person to compare his sport to music (the list of people to compare basketball to jazz is longer than a Miles Davis solo), he’s the first I’ve ever heard compare it to heavy metal. Although that’s not really a genre I dabble much in, this classic metal track is appropriate, because if the Lakers’ offense catches up to their defense, watch out.

In case you missed it

LeBron James is first NBA player to score 50,000 points. What’s next? Luka Doncic says ‘70K’

Luka Doncic, LeBron James are dominant as Lakers extend win streak to seven

Commentary: How do the Lakers set themselves up for a long postseason run? It starts at home

One Laker player’s hope is for peace in Ukraine

Commentary: Lakers find an identity, forged by a true leader in JJ Redick

LeBron James gets why Anthony Edwards doesn’t want to be face of NBA: ‘There’s this weird energy’

Lakers owner Jeanie Buss on the trade for Luka Doncic: ‘We had to go for it’