The game hasn´t gotten easy for the Los Angeles Lakers since the trade deadline. It just looks that way. Consider this moment from Sunday night´s win over the Clippers: Jaxson Hayes got a defensive rebound, handed the ball to Luka Doncic, who took one step forward and fired a 75-foot two-hand chest pass downcourt to LeBron James – who caught it in stride and capped the play with an easy layup. Touchdown, Lakers. And Doncic and James have had a play like that in just about every game lately, or so it would seem. A month or so has passed since The Trade – Doncic leaving the Dallas Mavericks and joining the Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis – and the Lakers suddenly look like title contenders. They are a league-best 16-3 since Jan. 20 and went into Tuesday’s games sitting in the No. 2 spot in the Western Conference, a place that until now they hadn’t been since about the first week of the season. “It´s been great,” Doncic said. “The atmosphere has been unbelievable, and we just want to give the people what they want, and that´s winning the games. That´s what we´re doing right now.” Sunday´s win was the 1,000th in which James has appeared in his regular season career, making him the fourth player to appear in that many victories after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1,074), Robert Parish (1,013) and Tim Duncan (1,001). And now, another milestone: James is one point away from 50,000 for his career when combining regular-season and postseason games, and that bridge will almost certainly be crossed Tuesday night against New Orleans. Only two other players – Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone – have scored at least 40,000 points when adding in playoffs. And technically, James is already over 50,000 but his 99 points from play-in tournament games and the 2023 NBA Cup title game (then just called the in-season tournament) don´t count. “He´s one of the greatest competitors. … He´s amazing to coach,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “He brings it every single day. He sets the standard for how you´re supposed to approach this craft and to me, that´s the most incredible thing.” There were other trades before the deadline that teams are seeing dividends from, including Golden State and Cleveland. The jury´s still out in Dallas because Davis was injured when he got there – then got hurt again in his sensational debut game with the Mavs.