After the trade heard ’round the world, Luka Doncic has struggled to find his rhythm in his first two games with the Lakers, who fell to the lowly Utah Jazz 131-119 on Wednesday.
Doncic, whose debut with the Lakers coincided with a return from a calf strain, finished with 16 points on 13 shots. He missed four of his five free throws, committed five turnovers and has missed 11 of his first 15 3-pointers with the Lakers.
In two games with L.A., both against the Jazz, Doncic has compiled 30 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. He used to do that pretty regularly in one game for the Mavericks.
It’s not to say he hasn’t been impactful, at least in terms of offering small glimpses of what’s to come as one half of a superstar tandem with LeBron James. He’s going to throw a lot of lob passes — which he’s already done — to Jaxson Hayes, and he and James are eventually going to interact more as screeners and creators for one another.
Luka Doncic’s Lakers debut: L.A. cruises to victory, but LeBron James and Jaxson Hayes were the real winners
Sam Quinn
But so far, Doncic and James have operated mostly independent of one another, which has its own long-term value as it takes a huge playmaking load off of James’ shoulders. This is all going to be fine. It’s just notable that so far, the Doncic returns have been pretty blah.
Doncic, who is on a minutes restriction following the calf injury, played just 23 minutes on Wednesday, and the Lakers lost those minutes by 19 points. You will not see that often, and don’t expect these struggles to continue for Doncic, although it should be noted that it hasn’t been a particularly strong shooting season for him on the whole.
Despite the poor box score numbers, Doncic has already given Lakers fans a glimpse of his unbelievable skill as a passer. Check this razzle-dazzle dish to Rui Hachimura for a corner 3:
That was nothing compared to this behind-the-back dime to Austin Reaves for a 3:
The word “insane” gets thrown around way too casually in NBA discourse; most of the plays described as such are actually relatively routine, especially for an NBA player. But this was a truly insane pass. Doncic was basically all the way to the rim and surrounded by Utah defenders and flung that thing on a line into Reaves’ shooting pocket. He couldn’t have reached out and handed it to him more accurately. Wild stuff.
Nonetheless, Doncic is going to have to play better than he has so far if the Lakers, now 32-20, are going to make noise in the playoffs, especially because they’re going to have to outscore teams because collectively they can’t defend on the perimeter to save their lives. Doncic will have to figure out how to operate without total control over the offense while he shares the court with James.
Those two will be fine. They’re too talented and smart to not eventually start putting up huge combined numbers. But it is an adjustment, and so far Doncic has gotten out of the gate pretty slowly as the Lakers head into the All-Star break.
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