After a stunning trade at the deadline, Luka Doncic is preparing for his first playoff run as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Expectations are high for this team, but that is what Doncic relishes as the 26-year-old looks to win his first NBA Championship after coming close multiple times earlier in his career.
Things won’t be easy as the Lakers earned the third seed, which sets up a first round matchup with Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Ahead of Game 1 on Saturday night though, Doncic is clearly excited as he posted a hype video featuring him and his Lakers teammates on social media:
— Luka Doncic (@luka7doncic) April 17, 2025
Doncic is always one to put the team first, and that is even evident in this video as it featured a lot of highlights of his Lakers teammates in addition to himself. The caption has flexing and hourglass emojis, so Doncic is clearly ready for the start of Game 1.
The Slovenian star has been one of the greatest playoff performers in NBA history to start his career, but he knows it is gonna take everyone on the Lakers’ roster to make a run to the championship. Doncic has plenty of help with LeBron James, Austin Reaves and Co., but the West is loaded so this will have to continue to build chemistry quick after the roster came together on the fly at the deadline.
JJ Redick: Lakers will rely on Luka Doncic to prepare for Timberwolves series
Luka Doncic is the most familiar with this Timberwolves team out of everyone on the Lakers roster as he went up against them in the Western Conference Finals last year where the Dallas Mavericks defeated them in five games.
With that being the case, Lakers head coach JJ Redick naturally will rely on Doncic as he and his staff prepare for this series.
“In my playing career that happened a lot. There’s regular season and there’s playoffs and often times it’s not completely different things but there are nuances to what teams are trying to do against certain opponents. Greg [St. Jean] was on Phoenix last year and got swept by Minnesota –sorry, Greg. Just stating a fact– so he’s got a good level of experience as well. It was literally the thing he said to me as soon as the game was over, so we have a lot of work to do and they’re a really good basketball team.”
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