LeBron James cites 'Luka magic' as Doncic has 45-point triple-double

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — LeBron James was in awe of “Luka magic” after Luka Doncic had 45 points, 14 assists and 11 rebounds in his fifth triple-double of the season in a 143-135 win over the Utah Jazz on Thursday night.

“That’s Luka. Luka magic! It’s no surprise. He’s just so damn good, it’s ridiculous,” said James, who had 28 points and 10 assists for the Lakers.

Doncic had his first 40-point triple-double as a Laker since arriving last season became the second player to have a 45-point triple double with five steals since the NBA began keeping track of steals. Cade Cunningham was first.

But the statistic that made Doncic smile the most in the postgame press conference was his single turnover.

“One turnover is the best thing on this stat sheet. We have seven turnovers, which is impressive for us, and we won the game,” Doncic said.

The Lakers led by 12 in the fourth quarter but the Jazz cut it to 134-130 before Doncic found Jaxson Hayes for his final assist and the cushion the Lakers needed to clinch the win.

He had a running conversation with a Jazz fan courtside and yelled, “Sit down” and “How are you doing now?” after Hayes threw down emphatic dunk off Doncic's lob.

Despite constant traps and doubles from the Jazz, Doncic had 10 points in the fourth as the Lakers outscored the Jazz 41-29.

For more than two decades, James has been accustomed to being the playmaker and the focus of his team’s offense. Now Doncic is the point, the trigger of the offensive attack, especially in crunch time.

The Lakers improved to 10-0 this season in crunch time with Doncic at the controls.

“It’s pretty awesome to be 10-0 in the clutch, and 12-3 on the road too, which is not easy,” Doncic said.

Marcus Smart was the recipient of two Doncic assists for 3-pointers during a fourth-quarter surge as the Jazz tried to double and trap Doncic.

Many of the Lakers — including Smart and Doncic who got technical fouls — were frustrated with the tightly-called game but Luka’s composure when it mattered most impressed Smart.

“It was big-time for us. He stayed in there mentally. I know he was very frustrated, but he kept his composure, held it together and did what he does best. He controlled his team and helped us come up with this victory,” Smart said.

The Lakers were missing Austin Reaves and Deandre Ayton to injury but Doncic made sure that would not be an excuse.

“There are stretches of excellence but there are stretches where he’s not as engaged and isn’t executing our stuff defensive … but he played certainly well enough to lead us to a win. He and LeBron had 28 assists and three turnovers,” Los Angeles coach JJ Redick said.

Doncic agreed.

“Honestly, I could do some more,” Doncic said, despite his historic night.

AP NBA: https://www.apnews.com/NBA

Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) lays up the ball against the Utah Jazz during the first quarter of an NBA basketball game Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rob Gray)

Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) shoots against the Utah Jazz during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rob Gray)

Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) posts up against Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George, left, during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rob Gray)

Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) shoots over Utah Jazz forward Kevin Love (42) and guard Keyonte George (3) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rob Gray)

LONDON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have been damning of the U.K.'s naval capabilities. Their jibes may have stung in a country with a long and proud maritime history, but they do carry some substance.

The U.K. has been at the forefront of Trump’s ire since the onset of the Iran war on Feb. 28, when British Prime Minister Keir Starmer refused to grant the U.S. military access to British bases.

Though that decision has been partly reversed with the decision to permit the U.S. to use the bases, including that of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, for so-called defensive purposes, Trump is adamant he was let down. He has repeatedly lashed out at Starmer and branded the Royal Navy’s two aircraft carriers as “toys.”

“You don’t even have a navy,” he told Britain's Daily Telegraph in comments published Wednesday. "You’re too old and had aircraft carriers that didn’t work.”

Hegseth, meanwhile, said sarcastically that the “big, bad Royal Navy” should get involved in making the Strait of Hormuz safe for commercial shipping.

For numerous reasons, the Royal Navy is not as big and bad as it used it to be when Britannia ruled the waves. But it's not as feeble as Trump and Hegseth imply and is largely similar with the French navy, which it is often compared with.

“On the negative side, there is a grain of truth, with the Royal Navy being smaller than it has been in hundreds of years,” said professor Kevin Rowlands, editor of the Royal United Services Institute Journal. “On the positive side, the Royal Navy would say that it’s entering its first period of growth since World War II, with more ships set to be built than in decades.”

It’s not that long ago that Britain could muster a task force of 127 ships, including two aircraft carriers, to sail to the south Atlantic after Argentina’s invasion of the Falkland Islands. That 1982 campaign, which then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan was lukewarm about, marked the final hurrah of Britain’s naval pedigree.

Nothing on that scale, or even remotely, could be accomplished now. Since World War II, Britain’s combat-ready fleet has declined substantially, much of it linked to changing military and technological advances and the end of empire. But not all.

The number of vessels in the Royal Navy fleet, including aircraft carriers, destroyers frigates and submarines has fallen from 166 in 1975 to 66 in 2025, according to The Associated Press' analysis of figures from the Ministry of Defense and the House of Commons Library.

Though the Royal Navy has two aircraft carriers at its command, there was a seven-year period in the 2010s when it had none. And the number of destroyers has halved to six while the frigate fleet has been slashed from 60 to just 11.

The Royal Navy faced criticism for the time it took to send the HMS Dragon destroyer to the Middle East after the war with Iran broke out. Though naval officials worked night and day to get it shipshape for a different mission than the one it was readying for, to many it symbolized the extent to which Britain’s military has been gutted since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

For much of the Cold War, Britain was spending between 4% and 8% of its annual national income on its military. After the Cold War, that proportion steadily dropped to a low of 1.9% of GDP in 2018, fuel to Trump's fire.

Like other countries, Britain, largely under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, sought to use the so-called “peace dividend” following the collapse of the Soviet Union to divert money earmarked for defense to other priorities, such as health and education.

And the austerity measures imposed by the Conservative-led government in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008-9 prevented any pickup in defense spending despite the clear signs of a resurgent Russia, especially after its annexation of Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine.

In the wake of Russia's full-blown invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and with another Middle East war underway, there's a growing understanding across the political divide that the cuts have gone too far.

Following the Ukraine invasion, the Conservatives started to turn the military spending tide around. Since the Labour Party returned to power in 2024, Starmer is seeking to ramp up British defense spending, partly at the cost of cutting the country's long-vaunted aid spending.

Starmer has promised to raise U.K. defense spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product by 2027, and the updated goal is now for it to rise to 3.5% of GDP by 2035, as part of a NATO agreement pushed by Trump. That, in plain terms, will mean tens of billions pounds more being spent — a lot more kit for the armed forces.

The pressure is on for the government to speed that schedule up. But with the public finances further imperilled by the economic consequences of the Iran war, it's not clear where any additional money will come.

The jibes will likely keep coming even though the critiques are unfair and far from the truth, said RUSI's Rowlands, who was a captain in the Royal Navy.

“We are dealing with an administration that doesn’t do nuance," he said.

This story has been corrected to show there were 166 vessels in 1975, not 466.

An artillery piece from the 1982 Falklands War between Argentina and Britain lies on Mount Longdon on the Falkland Islands, also known as Islas Malvinas, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

FILE - The Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales is pictured before its port call in Tokyo, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks to Royal Marines onboard the HMS ST Albans in Oslo, during his visit to Norway on Friday, May 9, 2025.(AP Photo/Alastair Grant, Pool, File)

FILE - Indonesian soldiers stand guard as Royal Navy offshore patrol vessel HMS Spey is docked at Tanjung Priok Port during a port visit in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana, File)

FILE - Crews walk near the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales before its port call in Tokyo Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)