room

Austin Reaves described it as “fun.” Luka Doncic called the Lakers’ effortless-looking offense as “flowing.” And this is still the early stages of development for a team that brought in nine new players.

Through eight games, the Lakers have the most dynamic offense in the NBA. Led by Doncic, the Lakers are second in scoring with 122.5 points per game and first in offensive rating with 121.9 points per 100 possessions. The starting lineup of Doncic, Reaves, Walker Kessler, Ziaire Williams and Matisse Thybulle has a league-best 135.5 offensive rating among five-man groups that have played at least 40 minutes together entering Wednesday’s game at Sacramento.

“Everything’s as expected,” guard Quentin Grimes said Monday after the Lakers hung 138 points in a 21-point win over the Miami Heat. “Winning, everybody’s getting involved, everybody’s making the right play, getting a lot of assists.”

The Lakers (6-2) had 39 assists against the Heat, the most during JJ Redick’s head-coaching tenure. Doncic is on a historic scoring binge; he is the first Laker since Kobe Bryant in 2007 to have five consecutive games of 35 or more points. While putting up a seemingly ho-hum 42 points against Miami, he also had a season-high 13 assists.

“It’s a really good offense that we’re playing right now,” Redick said. “And a lot of that, of course, is Doncic and what he’s able to do and bend the defense.”

Doncic, the NBA’s leading scorer at 38.3 points per game, does his damage early. He typically plays all 12 minutes of the opening quarter and leads the league with 15 points a game in the first quarter. Once he gets his shot going, teams send double teams to force the ball out of his hands. That’s when Doncic can be particularly dangerous.

Doncic has always been lauded for his superior court vision. But the Lakers are still learning to see the same picture. The Lakers had 14 turnovers, including 11 from Doncic and Reaves, during a preseason game against the Denver Nuggets, who were aggressively trapping the Lakers’ ballhandlers. The Lakers threw away a 25-point second-quarter lead on Oct. 30 when the Golden State Warriors ratcheted up the ball pressure.

Doncic’s five turnovers a game are the second most in the league, and Reaves is third with 4.6 turnovers per game.

Some players are new to being on a team with guards who get blitzed nearly every play, Reaves said. It requires players to not only be comfortable making decisions to pass, drive or shoot, but they have to choose quickly. A moment’s hesitation gives away the four-on-three advantage created by the double-team.

Redick praised Grimes’ ability to keep advantages by driving decisively. Forward Sandro Mamukelashvili is also great at it, Redick said, as is guard Collin Sexton, who knows no speed other than full. The Lakers have also finished their advantages with Thybulle and Williams making27 of 58 (46.6%) three-point attempts combined.

“That’s the beauty of our team,” Williams said. “You could put different guys at different spots and everyone’s able to make a play. All our guys are just dynamic and versatile. And everyone just wants to make the right play. No one wants to only shoot, there’s no egos. And that’s the fun part about it, you know? We all love to see each other succeed.”

Williams missed three games because of a sore left foot but returned Monday with nine points, two rebounds and two assists off the bench. When Jake LaRavia jumped into the starting lineup, the Lakers were just as effective offensively as their first-choice lineup. When Doncic, Reaves, Kessler, Thybulle and LaRavia are together, the Lakers’ 144.3 points per 100 possessions ranks first among lineups that have played at least 30 minutes.

Heat forward Giannis Antetokounmpo reaches through the hoop to block a reverse dunk by Lakers center Walker Kessler on Monday night.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

But numbers don’t normalize until about 250 minutes, Redick believes.

“I think there’s always room for improvement,” he said Monday.

The Lakers have the most room for improvement on the defensive side. Their defensive rating of 114 points allowed per 100 possessions is tied with the Clippers for 20th in the NBA. They still rank 28th in rebounding, despite three consecutive double-doubles from Kessler, who responded after Redick challenged the center to be a larger rebounding presence.

“This team can become a great team,” Redick said before Monday’s win over the Heat. “That requires patience, that requires a lot of coaching and teaching and buy-in, and so that whole process takes time.”

PETER Andre has revealed he refused to let his adult son Junior share a bedroom with girlfriend Jasmine at the family home — and even banned them from closing the door.

The Mysterious Girl singer admitted he enforced the strict rules when Junior, now 21, first started dating Jasmine, despite his son already being around 18 or 19.

Speaking on his new podcast, At Home With The Andres, alongside wife Dr Emily Andre, Peter explained that he wanted to set an example for his younger children.

He said: “Junior, even now he’s with his partner, yeah, that’s different. He’s with Jasmine and they’re really happy. They live together, it’s different.”

The dad-of-five continued: “When they come over together, they stay together. But when they got together, with Jasmine, it was like, no, you’re not sharing a room. And he’s an adult, he’s like 19 or 18, and I’m like, no, no, you guys can sit up there and watch TV, doors open. They must’ve thought we were…”

Emily backed her husband, saying: “I actually think a lot of parents would relate to that.”

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Explaining his reasoning, Peter added: “And it was because I didn’t want Millie and Theo to be thinking that it’s just normal for someone to just have someone in their room with the door shut. And then what happens if that relationship doesn’t work out?”

He continued: “Well then the next person, and then where does it stop? So I’m glad that we put those rules in.”

Emily agreed, saying: “As a parent, you can only do what feels like the right thing at the time.”

She added: “I do think that was the right thing at the time, especially with the younger kids in the house. But, you know, everyone’s got different rules, but I think a lot of parents will relate to that. Definitely.”

The couple’s new podcast offers listeners a glimpse behind the scenes of their family life, with the pair discussing everything from parenting dilemmas to marriage and their very different careers.

Peter and Emily tied the knot in 2015 and share children Amelia, Theo and Arabella, while the singer is also dad to Junior and Princess from his previous marriage to Katie Price.

It was a potential nightmare scenario. Starting left tackle, Elijah Paige, had been scratched in pregame warm-ups at Penn State. And in his place stepped a true freshman in his first start at USC, forced to find his way in a White Out, surrounded by a hostile crowd of 114,000 strong.

But when Vlad Dyakonov learned he was stepping in, a couple of hours ahead of kickoff, his coaches were surprised by how little it seemed to faze him.

“Some of us [coaches] were like, ‘Does he realize what he’s getting himself into?’” coach Lincoln Riley said, with a grin. “He didn’t flinch, man.”

You could say the same, generally, about USC’s entire front through the first half of this season. After years of shallow depth, unfortunate injuries, and transfer misfires at the position, USC’s offensive line has been the stabilizing force propelling its high-powered attack to a 6-1 record.

USC running back King Miller carries the ball as the offensive line blocks during a win at Penn State on Oct. 10.

(Isaiah Vazquez / Getty Images)

That’s a testament primarily to offensive line coach Zach Hanson, who, in his fifth season, has now fully rebuilt the room in his image.

“He’s a very steady guy,” Riley said of Hanson. “He’s not a guy who fluctuates a lot day to day, so our players kind of feed off of that. There’s a steadiness to our group.”

USC is also entering the brutal back half of its schedule with that group as healthy as it has been all season. As the Trojans take to the road Saturday looking to build momentum off the big win over Penn State and subsequent bye week, they’ll have all five starters available along the offensive line against Wisconsin. Paige is set to return, as is left guard Hayden Treter, who missed the last two games.

It comes at an ideal time, considering the pass rusher they’ll have to contend with Saturday. The Badgers have just eight sacks as a defense this season, but boast one of the best pass rushers in the Big Ten, senior Sebastian Cheeks. Cheeks leads the conference with 28 quarterback pressures.

Few teams, though, have been better than USC through seven games at protecting the quarterback. The Trojans’ starting offensive line has only given up one more combined pressure (29) than Cheeks has accumulated himself this season, while only allowing seven sacks in seven games.

“We’re a unit,” center Tobias Raymond said. “So everyone is feeding off each other.”

USC offensive lineman Elijah Paige blocks during a game against Oregon at the Coliseum on Sept. 26.

(Ben Liebenberg / Getty Images)

With Cheeks and a handful of other fearsome pass rushers approaching on USC’s upcoming Big Ten slate, right tackle Justin Tauanuu said the Trojans used the bye week to get back to the basics up front.

“Going against great players like that, you have to go back to fundamentals,” Tauanuu said. “Fundamentals will triumph over everything else.”

USC hasn’t looked like a line in need of much instruction this season. Jayden Maiava has faced pressure on just over 20% over his dropbacks, which ranks 10th among all quarterbacks nationally. It’s also a considerably lower rate of pressure than any USC quarterback has faced in recent years. The previous low, under Riley, was 30.5% with Miller Moss at quarterback in 2024.

Part of that success is Maiava’s penchant for getting rid of the ball quickly. But his protection has certainly been a critical aspect of his success this season. Because when pressure has managed to reach him, the USC senior has been much less effective as a passer. According to Pro Football Focus, Maiava has a completion rate of just 39% under pressure versus 79% when he has a clean pocket.

Blitzes also haven’t bothered USC’s passing attack much, either. Another product of the line’s impressive performance to date. Maiava has essentially had the same amount of time to throw when blitzed (2.7 seconds) versus when not blitzed (2.78 seconds).

Creating room in the run game has been a different story. USC has been considerably less effective on the ground this season than in recent years — a fact that Riley said was front of mind during the bye. The Trojans rank ninth in the Big Ten in rush yards per attempt (4.33) and 10th in rush plays of 20-plus yards (5).

“We definitely can run the ball better,” Riley said. “We’re gonna need to run the ball better. Good is not good enough for us.”

As a whole, though, it’s hard to imagine USC being in a better place up front this season. Especially considering where the position stood at the start of Riley’s tenure. The coach tried, at first, to build the room through the transfer portal and saw mixed results. After that, injuries ravaged an otherwise thin room.

But now the depth Hanson has built over the past few years is paying off. USC has already weathered injuries, including a season-ending injury to last year’s starting center, Kilian O’Connor. Meanwhile, several highly touted linemen are still currently buried on the depth chart, among them five-star freshman Keenyi Pepe, whose progression Riley said has been impressive.

“If you just kind of look at the makeup of it, we don’t have transfers,” Riley said. “We have a lot of guys who were kind of homegrown in this program. We have a good healthy young group. Zach has obviously had a big role in putting that whole group together.”

The Southern California college basketball kickoff luncheon was held on Wednesday at the Downtown Athletic Club, and sitting at one of the tables dressed in suit and tie was someone as knowledgeable as any coach in the room.

Former Fremont High, Cal State Dominguez Hills and Cal State Los Angeles coach Dave Yanai, 83, was there. He won the John R. Wooden Award’s Legends of Coaching honor in 2021. He was inducted into the City Section Hall of Fame in 2023.

Asked if he’s still watching basketball, Yanai said, “A lot.”

He was the first Japanese American to be a head coach in college basketball. His nephew is Harvey Kitani, a future City Section Hall of Fame basketball coach who was at Fairfax and now Rolling Hills Prep.

Yanai still has much to offer. You just have to ask.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.