NBANBAThe Lakers may have lost their battle against the Bucks on Thursday, but Doncic’s 45-point outburst was a reminder that they’re still winning the war
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By Rob MahoneyMarch 14, 2:28 pm UTC • 5 min
Luka Doncic dropped 40-plus points for the first time as a Los Angeles Laker on Thursday, in a game he never really had a chance to win. His deftly placed kick-out passes resulted in botched jumpers. Unbalanced lineups led to unstable spacing. And whatever Doncic managed to score himself—a remarkable 45 for the night, on just 27 shots—the Bucks matched and then some. So it goes for the Lakers these days, and their efforts to get by with a makeshift roster that, frankly, wasn’t built for this.
Trading for Doncic was a no-brainer for the Lakers, and it will likely go down as one of the most important deals in the team’s already rich history. Yet this roster wasn’t constructed with Luka in mind—and it certainly wasn’t made to function without LeBron James, who’s currently sidelined by a groin strain. This was never the plan. But sometimes the general manager of another team approaches you with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and you shred your plan to ribbons and happily figure out the rest later.
More on the Luka Trade
More on the Luka Trade
With that comes an inevitable lag and a slight disconnect between the magnitude of the trade and its payoff. The Lakers surged to second place in the West despite all these complications but have since fallen back down to earth. Their offense has ebbed and flowed, leading to some weird outcomes against lesser opponents. Doncic can be spectacular, but it’s still not enough. The Lakers never had the kind of shooting that would make the best use of Luka’s playmaking, and they certainly don’t with James and Rui Hachimura out of the lineup. Trading away Anthony Davis compromised an already thin frontcourt, and nixing an agreed-on trade for Mark Williams compounded the problem. Now, the loss of Jaxson Hayes to a knee injury feels like a heavy blow. This team has a vanishingly small margin for error, and it’s attempting to win on talent alone since it wasn’t conceived on fit. There are pockets of the roster where that collection of talent already makes sense. And then there’s Alex Len starting actual NBA games, playing out minutes the Lakers will almost certainly lose.
A healthy Lakers defense is active and committed enough to carry the team to wins. But without it—and without LeBron—Luka has become the team’s primary means of survival. So much of what Doncic is doing right now requires working against the grain of his circumstances. He doesn’t have the pressure release that comes with having LeBron on the floor, not only trading off possessions but also amplifying Luka’s every attempt to create. Austin Reaves put up 28 points against the Bucks but still looks uncomfortable as he works his way back from a calf strain.
Doncic, too, is still rounding into form after missing more than six weeks with his own calf injury. He mostly seems like his usual self, but sometimes Luka’s first step looks a half beat slow—which makes his drives a bit more labored and his angles a bit more challenging. Yet a version of Luka that’s working through that and finding his rhythm is still ridiculous. An out of shape Luka is still a killer. This is why the drive-by justifications from Mavericks sources to explain the trade never really passed muster. Even if Luka does get injured now and again, and even if he does—gasp!—have “a taste for beer and hookah,” none of that stops him from wrecking just about every defense put in front of him. This is one of the best creators on the planet, and on Wednesday he looked like it—even if the Lakers couldn’t fully capitalize.
When Doncic is hitting his stepback 3s, there’s only so much a defense can do. None of Milwaukee’s perimeter defenders could contain Luka, and bigs who switched into the action were often dead in the water. Doncic isn’t even his best, most explosive self, but he proved so dangerous that Milwaukee started trapping him at half court. It’s obviously worth monitoring that Luka still has games where he has trouble creating separation and that he doesn’t seem to be scoring as much at the rim. Yet if you account for the fouls he draws inside, Doncic is actually creating significantly more of his own scoring opportunities deep in the paint than he did for the Mavericks last season—when he took Dallas all the way to the NBA Finals. Plus, rhythm has always been more important for Doncic’s game than shot location; so long as he’s able to turn the corner and get some momentum toward the basket, he puts the defense in an impossible bind. Once he gets into the mid-paint, you can take away his drive or the lob, but rarely both. If Luka is moving well enough to put up 45 and demand two defenders on the ball, isn’t that what really matters?
The Lakers probably aren’t quite as good as their eight-game winning streak suggested, or nearly as limited as they’ve looked dropping three straight. They also don’t need to have it all figured out. The Lakers are playing with house money this season. If they’re able to contend, all the better—but trading for Luka, beyond the obvious benefits, allowed the Lakers to strive for more than just the present. There is a longer game in play when the franchise player is just 26 years old, and with it some allowance for a provisional roster to find itself. It just so happens that acquiring Luka gives LeBron and the Lakers their best chance of making a deep playoff run this season, too.
The most important factors are already swinging in their favor. The defense delivered until the injuries started piling up. James was playing vibrant, rejuvenated basketball before he was sidelined. And Doncic, with every mounting highlight, looks more like himself. What was most striking about his 45-point outing against the Bucks was how many of those points came from moves only Luka would make. A one-footed stepback 3 in the corner. A slam-on-the-brakes drive that sent Bucks defenders crashing into each other, and out of his way. Beyond the unique impact he has on the game, Doncic has a wholly singular style: patient to the point of frustrating defenders, and so deeply improvisational that you could never see the next move coming anyway. He’s the kind of superstar worth rearranging your franchise for—a reminder, even in a loss, that the Lakers have already won.
Rob covers the NBA and pop culture for The Ringer. He previously covered the league for Sports Illustrated.
