LOS ANGELES — When the Los Angeles Lakers initially traded for Luka Doncic, one of the biggest questions was how Doncic fit in with LeBron James on the court. The initial sample size was successful as the Lakers locked up the No. 3 seed spot in the Western Conference and went straight to the NBA playoffs, and they are preparing for the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The NBA playoffs are a different story. But in a post-workout media interview, LeBron James quickly summed up the chemistry between him and Luka Doncic and their mindset during the Lakers' first-round series against the Timberwolves.

'On the offensive end, give the ball to Luka,' said James. "We're always ready, we don't need to be ready anymore."

The Lakers finished the tournament with a 3-0 record to secure the No. 0 seed spot in the Western Conference, the first time they have directly entered the playoffs since the start of the playoffs.

The Lakers finished the regular season with a 3-0 record in the final 0 games, but excluding the last game of the season in which the Lakers rested most of the roster, they had a 0-0 record. Both James and Hachimura have returned to the lineup for a while, and the Lakers are in good health.

Acknowledging that both health and a strong end-of-season performance contribute to potential playoff success, James admits it comes down to execution on the court and just playing the game in front of you.

"You want to go into the playoffs to stay healthy, you're going to play at a high level for most of the season and you want to win the games you have to win when it counts, the intensity of the playoffs, and we did that," James said.

"But at the end of the day...... The game was won between four lines," James continued. "I don't care how much you know about a team, how much they know about you, all the talk, it's not about that. Yes, once you step on the pitch, the game is won between the four lines. You have a game plan and you want to execute it and they will try to stop our game plan and vice versa. That's the key. ”

The Lakers met in a series against the Timberwolves, where they won two games each in the regular season. The last time these two teams met in the playoffs was in the playoffs in 2004, where the Lakers were seeded 0. The last time they actually played each other in the playoffs was in the Western Conference Finals in '0.