After looking rusty in his first three games with the Los Angeles Lakers, Luka Doncic broke out in a big way on Saturday night, leading his new team to a blowout road win over the Denver Nuggets. It marked the first time L.A. has won in Denver since the final game of the 2022 regular season.
Doncic found his shot early and wound up finishing with a game-high 32 points to go along with 10 rebounds, seven assists and four steals.
“He was great. He controlled the game when he had the ball in his hands, made some great decisions,” Lakers head coach JJ Redick said of Doncic. “I thought the way he handled the shock wit Jokic up in pick-and-roll early, getting us good looks, getting Jaxson two layups. They had to go to other options. And then on the other end, it was a top notch defensive game for him. That was all our guys. They battled and they competed and they executed at a really high level.”
Doncic admitted that he felt more like himself in this game, which is what the Lakers were hoping would eventually happen after he got over the shock of the trade and worked his way back into game shape after missing six weeks with a calf strain.
“I think the sort of return to normalcy, and in some ways a new normal, that we’re trying to create for him, there are steps to all of that for it to become his new normal. You need in some ways, like What About Bob, you need baby steps. And tonight was a baby step,” Redick added.
There has been a lot of talk about how the Lakers will run their offense with three ball-dominant players like Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves. Almost everything ran though Doncic on Saturday though and Redick expects that to continue being the case moving forward.
“I think Luka needs to be the guy that controls the offense,” he said. “And Bron and AR, because we’re going to stagger everybody, they’re going to have their times to be on the ball. But all three of those guys are very intelligent basketball players, and we can create mismatches. We can get teams in the blender. And a lot of times, that’s how we’re able to generate, I thought, some great looks in the first half. Made some early and then went cold. We felt like we were getting good offense throughout the first half.”
Doncic is used to having the ball in his hands and considering he will hopefully be the franchise cornerstone for the next decade, it makes sense for Redick to give him the keys. James and Reaves will certainly still get plenty of touches but also have experience operating off the ball, making the Lakers that much more dangerous once they build some chemistry.
JJ Redick happy Luka Doncic finally had blackout moment
JJ Redick told Luka Doncic before the Lakers’ game against the Nuggets that he needed to have a blackout moment where he yelled something at no one in particular to signify he was back. That came late in the second quarter, and Redick was happy about it.
“He got one at the end of the first half when he hit the 3 right in front of our bench, 63-52. He started screaming. I don’t know who he was screaming at, but he started screaming. It was great,” Redick said.
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