EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — Less than three months after the trade that shook the basketball world, the Los Angeles Lakers are headed into their first postseason with LeBron James and Luka Doncic atop their roster.
The trouble is that this stellar duo has only played 21 games together.
James realizes that might not be enough time to build a bond strong enough to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, who probably have a better idea of who they are and what they can do when these teams begin their first-round playoff series Saturday in downtown LA.
The third-seeded Lakers won 50 games and the Pacific Division despite dramatically changing their core at midseason. Beating the Wolves in a seven-game series is an even tougher task, and James knows there won't be a Hollywood ending to the Lakers' wild year without plenty of work, determination and injury luck.
The 40-year-old James has been cautious with his thoughts about the Lakers in recent weeks as the 22-year veteran heads toward his 18th NBA postseason. Better than anyone, he realizes the enormity of the challenge ahead as he chases his fifth championship.
“Obviously you want to be healthy going into a postseason run, that’s most important,” James said Friday after practice. “And then you want to have been playing at a high level for the majority of the season — being in must-win games going down the stretch, playoff-type intensity games, and we had that. But at the end of the day ... I don’t give a damn how much you know about a team, how much they know about you, all the talk. It’s not about that. It’s about once you get on the floor.”
One year after Minnesota reached the Western Conference finals and lost to Doncic's Mavericks, the Wolves roared into the playoffs this spring with a 17-4 finish to the regular season, playing standout basketball after Julius Randle returned from injury.
LeBron and Luka have the higher seed and home-court advantage — but only just barely.
For all of the Lakers' fanfare and star power, they went 7-7 down the stretch. LA still hung on to the third seed despite winning just one more game than the Wolves — and only two more than eighth-place Memphis.
“Trying to figure stuff out on the fly, it’s not perfect,” Lakers rookie coach JJ Redick said. “And frankly, our stretch since we traded for Luka hasn’t been perfect, and not just with scheduling, and with guys being in and out of the lineup. It just hasn’t been perfect, and it’s really hard to do.”
James and Anthony Edwards are meeting in the NBA playoffs for the first time after they cemented their friendship during last summer's Paris Olympics.
“It means a lot to match up against him, man," Edwards said. "Probably goes down as the greatest player to ever play basketball. Trying to get putting him out of the playoffs under my belt is going to be a tough one, but it’s going to be a fun road.”
James called Edwards “amazing. Unbelievable basketball junkie. Loves to play the game of basketball. Great kid, and all the success those guys have had so far throughout his young career has been awesome to see.”
Confidence won’t be a problem against the Lakers for Edwards, even though he’s still just 23. Keeping his cool has been an issue this season for him, having led the league in technical fouls and amassing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for various behavioral transgressions. He said there’s no reason for the Wolves to worry about that, though.
“I won’t get no techs. I won’t say anything. I’m going to be super-quiet, 100%,” Edwards said.
The Lakers have played this season a heavy gap-help defense that’s designed to keep a gamebreaker like Edwards from doing too much damage at the rim, so the Wolves' wings must be ready to capitalize on catch-and-shoot opportunities. The Wolves were fourth in the NBA in 3-point percentage and fifth in attempts during the regular season, and Edwards led the league in makes.
“If they’re taking the ball out of Ant’s hands, you have an open shot, let it fly. Because once that happens, it just loosens up the defense and opens everything up,” said Donte DiVincenzo, who shot nearly 40% from deep. “And it also is just a confidence-booster for everybody in the locker room. Everybody knows that whoever’s going to give the ball up, the next person is going to have a wide-open shot to try to get a good one. And there’s nobody on the team who’s going to try to do it themselves, and Ant’s at the forefront of that, just building confidence in everybody on the team.”
AP Sports Writer Dave Campbell in Minneapolis contributed.
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Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, left, dunks as Houston Rockets center Jock Landale defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, April 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) reacts during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz, Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Los Angeles Lakers' Luka Doncic (77) and LeBron James (23) celebrate in the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Dallas Mavericks in Dallas, Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Venezuelans on Saturday were scrambling to understand who is in charge of their country after a U.S. military operation that captured President Nicolás Maduro.
President Donald Trump delivered a shocking pick: The United States, perhaps in coordination with one of Maduro's most trusted aides.
Delcy Rodríguez has served as Maduro's vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela's oil-dependent economy as well as its feared intelligence service. But she is someone the Trump administration apparently is willing to work with, at least for now.
“She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” Trump told reporters of Rodríguez, who faced U.S. sanctions during Trump’s first administration for her role in undermining Venezuelan democracy.
In a major snub, Trump said opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was awarded last year's Nobel Peace Prize, didn't have the support to run the country.
Trump said Rodríguez had a long conversation with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in which Trump claimed she said, “‘We’ll do whatever you need.’”
“I think she was quite gracious,” Trump added. “We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.”
Rodríguez tried to project strength and unity among the ruling party's many factions, downplaying any hint of betrayal. In remarks on state TV, she demanded the immediate release of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and denounced the U.S. operation as a flagrant violation of the United Nations charter.
“There is only one president in this country, and his name is Nicolás Maduro," Rodríguez said, surrounded by top civilian officials and military commanders.
There was no immediate sign that the U.S. was running Venezuela.
“What will happen tomorrow? What will happen in the next hour? Nobody knows,” Caracas resident Juan Pablo Petrone said.
Trump indicated that Rodríguez had been sworn in already as president of Venezuela, per the transfer of power outlined in the constitution. However, state television has not broadcast any swearing-in ceremony.
In her televised address, Rodríguez did not declare herself acting president or mention a political transition. A ticker at the bottom of the screen identified her as the vice president. She gave no sign that she would be cooperating with the U.S.
“What is being done to Venezuela is an atrocity that violates international law,” she said. “History and justice will make the extremists who promoted this armed aggression pay.”
The Venezuelan constitution also says a new election must be called within a month in the event of the president’s absence.
But experts have been debating whether the succession scenario would apply here, given the government’s lack of popular legitimacy and the extraordinary U.S. military intervention.
Venezuelan military officials were quick to project defiance in video messages.
“They have attacked us but will not break us,” said Defense Minister Gen. Vladimir Padrino López, dressed in fatigues.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello appeared on state TV in a helmet and flak jacket, urging Venezuelans to “trust in the political leadership and military” and “get out on the streets” to defend the country’s sovereignty.
“These rats attacked and they will regret what they did,” he said of the U.S.
A lawyer educated in Britain and France, Rodríguez has a long history of representing the revolution started by the late Hugo Chávez on the world stage.
She and her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, head of the Maduro-controlled National Assembly, have strong leftist credentials born from tragedy. Their father was a socialist leader who died in police custody in the 1970s, a crime that shook many activists of the era, including a young Maduro.
Unlike many in Maduro’s inner circle, the Rodríguez siblings have avoided criminal indictment in the U.S. Delcy Rodríguez has developed strong ties with Republicans in the oil industry and on Wall Street who balked at the notion of U.S.-led regime change.
Among her past interlocutors was Blackwater founder Erik Prince and, more recently, Richard Grenell, a Trump special envoy who tried to negotiate a deal with Maduro for greater U.S. influence in Venezuela.
Fluent in English, Rodríguez is sometimes portrayed as a well-educated moderate in contrast to the military hardliners who took up arms with Chávez against Venezuela's democratically elected president in the 1990s.
Many of them, especially Cabello, are wanted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges and stand accused of serious human rights abuses. But they continue to hold sway over the armed forces, the traditional arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela.
That presents major challenges to Rodríguez asserting authority. But experts say that Venezuela’s power brokers have long had a habit of closing ranks behind their leaders.
“These leaders have all seen the value of staying united. Cabello has always taken a second seat or third seat, knowing that his fate is tied up with Maduro’s, and now he very well might do that again,” said David Smilde, a sociology professor at Tulane University who has conducted research into Venezuela's political dynamics over the past three decades.
“A lot depends on what happened last night, which officials were taken out, what the state of the military looks like now," Smilde said. "If it doesn’t have much firepower anymore, they’re more vulnerable and diminished and it will be easier for her to gain control.”
Shortly before Trump's press conference, Machado, the opposition leader, called on her ally Edmundo González — a retired diplomat widely considered to have won the country’s disputed 2024 presidential election — to “immediately assume his constitutional mandate and be recognized as commander-in-chief."
In an triumphant statement, Machado promised that her movement would “restore order, free political prisoners, build an exceptional country and bring our children back home.”
She added: “Today we are prepared to assert our mandate and take power."
Asked about Machado, Trump was blunt: “I think it would be very tough for (Machado) to be the leader," he said.
“She doesn’t have the support or respect within the country.”
Venezuelans expressed shock, with many speculating on social media that Trump had mixed up the two women's names. Machado has not responded to Trump's remarks.
Goodman reported from Miami.
Venezuelan Vice President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodriguez gives a press conference at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
A supporter of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro stands on a median strip waving a national flag in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
