Luka Doncic has looked more and more like himself as the games have gone on and fortunately that trend continued in the Los Angeles Lakers’ matchup against the New York Knicks.
The Lakers trailed for most of the evening but were able to rally in the fourth quarter to force overtime. In the extra period, Doncic gave Los Angeles the lead with a personal 5-0 run that they never relinquished from that point on. The Lakers completed their comeback against the Knicks, but more importantly, Doncic was the one who led them down the stretch.
Doncic’s first few games for the purple and gold were rough as he worked his way back from a calf injury, but he’s turned a corner both health and rhythm-wise. Los Angeles has shifted its offense to run through and Doncic and the results have been amazing to say the least.
Following the win against New York, Doncic acknowledged the team wasn’t physical enough in the first half before ramping things up.
“First, being more physical,” Doncic said of what changed after halftime. “I think we were just kind of sloppy in the first half, but in the fourth quarter, we were physical, getting stops, and we were just playing our basketball on the offensive end.”
Doncic has now been with the team for over a month and a few things have stood out to him about this Lakers group.
“Just the chemistry, I think everybody gets along, that’s really important,” Doncic said. “We’re well connected. Obviously, there’s room for improvement, but I think we’re well connected, so I’m excited to be a part of this team.”
Doncic also credited the team’s commitment to sticking with each other even when they weren’t executing as well as they could have been.
“It means a lot, I don’t think we played good today,” Doncic admitted. “Especially for the first three quarters, I don’t think we played good, so that just showed the whole group together and everybody cheering for each other. And we gave each other proof that we need to win the games.”
It speaks volumes that the purple and gold were able to come back against a strong team like New York. The Knicks muddied up the game with their physical defense and free throws, but the Lakers weathered the storm and put themselves in a position to steal the victory.
Even though Doncic came up clutch in the win, there’s still a different level he can get to. Once that version of Doncic is released it could spell trouble for the rest of the league.
JJ Redick believes Lakers are getting comfortable playing with Luka Doncic
Playing next to someone like Luka Doncic sounds easy on paper, but is actually much harder than it looks. In his first few games with the team, players looked surprised or were out of position when Doncic passed the ball.
Recently, though, head coach JJ Redick believes the Lakers are getting comfortable playing with Doncic.
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