With three starters out including LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers were heavily reliant on Luka Doncic to carry the offensive load against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Doncic did everything in his power to keep the Lakers within striking distance, finishing with 45 points and 11 rebounds on 14-of-27 from the field. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough as the Lakers fell to the Bucks by 20, their third consecutive loss on this road trip.
The Lakers are in the midst of perhaps their toughest stretch of the season in terms of scheduling with three consecutive back-to-backs giving them six games in eight days. Add in the injury issues and it is a very difficult predicament to be in.
But Doncic isn’t making any excuses for himself or the Lakers. Following the loss in Milwaukee, the superstar guard admitted that he has never been through anything like this, but simply said that the team just has to keep going, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“I don’t think I’ve ever went through something like that. But at the end of the day, we’re getting paid to do that and there shouldn’t be any excuses that you’re tired. You live for this. Just gotta have great recovery after every game and just keep going.”
In terms of what the Lakers’ mindset needs to be right now, Doncic echoed the same idea of just to keep going, noting that winning teams go through these stretches, but they just have to learn and continue to believe that they can win the next game:
“The mindset is we gotta keep going. We got three really important players out, so it’s always gonna be tough when there’s three or four starters out. It’s always tough… But the winning teams always go through something and we’re kind of experiencing that now. But we just gotta learn from it and go into the next game with the mentality that we could win this game and we want to win this game.”
That is certainly the right way to view this as the Lakers must continue to push forward and figure out a way to win, regardless of who is suiting up. With Doncic leading the way anything is possible, but the margin for error is extremely small so it will take an entire team effort to turn things around.
Friday’s game against the Denver Nuggets will be even more challenging as Doncic was among those ruled out, which makes sense considering how tough the upcoming stretch is for L.A.
Luka Doncic says big scoring night ‘doesn’t matter’ in a Lakers loss
Luka Doncic had his best offensive game as a member of the Lakers with his 45-point outing, but the superstar guard is more focused on the team picking up wins and not his own individual exploits.
Doncic said that ‘nothing matters’ if the Lakers don’t win the game in the end, calling his big night ‘OK.’ Doncic added that he still isn’t 100% recovered from his calf injury that caused him to miss six weeks, but feels that winning will help his rhythm return.
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