The Los Angeles Lakers earned a gritty victory against the Houston Rockets on Monday night. Luka Doncic was one of three players to lead the team with 20 points in a 104-98 victory. It was reminiscent of the types of wins the Lakers would get when Doncic first joined the team, showing a defensive energy that had been missing from the last handful of games.
It came at a huge time, too. With the win, the Lakers separated themselves from the pack of teams fighting to avoid the Play-In Tournament from the No. 5 seed Memphis Grizzlies to the No. 8 seed L.A. Clippers. They also gave themselves a fighting chance to catch the Rockets and Denver Nuggets at No. 2 and No. 3 over the final seven games of the season.
Doncic assessed the Lakers performance against the Rockets and had nothing but positive things to say. In fact, it’s the type of showing he believes the Lakers are capable of putting together every single time they play.
“Great, very comfortable. As you saw today, today we fought, we fought really hard,” Doncic said. “It was a very physical game. We’ve got to play like this every game. If we play like this in the defensive end, on offense, we didn’t do much outside Gabe [Vincent] and Dorian [Finney-Smith]. But we shared the ball, we played forward with pace, and we just got to play like that.”
Doncic was asked how much he looks at the standings in the Western Conference, and he revealed that it’s not a personal thing so much as a team conversation. Either way, that’s not where his main concern is.
“A little bit. We talk as a group mostly,” he said. “But we just got to go game by game, and that’s what I always say. We can’t look forward. We got to go game by game. Every game is a different challenge, so we just got to go game by game.”
The Lakers star joked about the team not having any time to develop chemistry off the court given the condensed schedule, but still feels like they’re growing as a unit.
“Well, we didn’t do dinner yet. We had so many games, so we didn’t have time for that. But, off the court is great. Everybody joking in the locker room. Then when we need to lock in, we lock in. So the chemistry is a great part of it.”
Doncic has seemingly found some comfort with the Lakers, and it shows on nights like Monday with a hard-earned win in an important game.
LeBron James: Lakers need to play with urgency
With seven games remaining in the regular season, LeBron James urged the team to play with urgency the way they did against the Rockets and Grizzlies. And while he is aware of the standings, the goal should be to play playoff-level basketball starting now.
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