Even though Luka Doncic started off his night against the Warriors on the right foot, scoring on a running play in the opening minutes of this California rivalry, he didn’t have too many highlights after that. The Slovenian ended the game with 19 points on 6-for-17 shooting in Lakers’ 123-116 defeat.
“That performance from me was unacceptable,” the guard said as Los Angeles fell to the fourth spot of the Western Conference with only six contests remaining. “When I play like that, that makes [it] harder [for the team] to win, so just got to figure that out.”
Luka’s shooting from beyond the arc also suffered, as he went 0-for-6 last night. This meant that a 114-game streak ended of him making at least one shot from range. The last time he went scoreless from the deep was almost two years ago, making it the 5th longest streak.
Even though the European star’s left elbow had been wrapped in kinesiology tape throughout the night, he didn’t blame the injury for his shooting woes. “It’s fine,” Doncic said postgame. “That’s my left [arm], so it’s fine. I was shooting with the right. It [just] looked like [the] left.”
Golden State was special on defense last night, holding off the purple and gold attacks in the first half, as they only hit 35.7% of their shots and trailed 60-47. “It was not what they were doing,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said of their rival’s defensive approach.
He then added: “It was what we were doing. And we showed them at halftime. The spacing alignments [were incorrect] and having the wrong guy in the dunker spot, the wrong guy in the corner.”
In the second half, the Lakers rallied back and scored 69 points, with LeBron James playing his seventh contest since missing out on the action for two weeks. “That was the best I’ve felt since before the injury, for sure,” the veteran said. “I just tried to press, get downhill. My rhythm, as far as my jump shot, felt pretty good today.”
