Luka Doncic has had to do a lot of the heavy lifting for the Los Angeles Lakers as they’ve had several of their stars and regular rotation players out with injury.
For example, Doncic was by his lonesome against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday as Austin Reaves and LeBron James were unavailable. Reaves will be out for at least the next month with a calf injury, while the Lakers ruled out James with left foot joint arthritis and sciatica for the Spurs game.
While Los Angeles was able to keep pace with San Antonio in the first half, the second half was an entirely different story as they were unable to play with the same effort and intensity. The Lakers ended up losing 107-91 to the Spurs, though Doncic gave his best effort with a triple-double of 38 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
Losing to San Antonio on the second night of a back-to-back set is nothing to be ashamed of and Doncic expressed how proud he was of his teammates for giving it their all, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“I would say like JJ said after the game, obviously we hate losing but I’m really proud of every guy that stepped on the floor. I thought we fought really hard, obviously we were down LeBron which makes it hard to compete. I think everybody that left the court today should be feeling proud.”
Doncic’s box score numbers pop out, but he admitted that he and the rest of the team still could have been better in several key areas:
“I still thought I should’ve been way better than this. Missed free throws, turnovers. I thought we had some great looks too, we couldn’t knock them down.”
The Spurs boast one of the best defenses in the league and they wound up finding ways to disrupt Doncic, forcing him into seven turnovers. As for free throws, Doncic went 10-of-16 but the team as a whole shot 14-of-22.
It’s hard to blame the purple and gold for dropping this game against San Antonio given the circumstances, but Doncic and the rest of the squad need to be at their best when they return home to host the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday.
Luka Doncic has learned a lot playing alongside LeBron James
There aren’t many players in the NBA that can relate to Doncic, but James is definitely one of them. In less than a full year of playing together, Doncic said he has already learned a lot from James as their partnership continues to grow.
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? It’s the best way to watch player interviews, exclusive coverage from events, participate in live shows, and more!
