Luka Doncic has impressed for the Los Angeles Lakers lately, but Robert Horry wants to see a change in the Slovenian’s approach in games. Following the Lakers’ 118-106 loss to the Orlando Magic at the Kia Center, Horry stated on Spectrum Sportsnet that Doncic needs to focus on making the extra pass.
“We all know you can score,” Horry said. “When he gets guys involved, he’s much better.”
To be fair to Doncic, he does get his teammates involved a fair bit. Sure, there are times during a game when you think he’s running one too many isolations, but he does give the ball up, too.
Doncic had 32 points (9-23 FG), seven rebounds, seven assists, and one steal against the Magic. The 26-year-old could have gotten a few more assists, too, had his teammates not missed some open shots.
Doncic is now averaging 27.2 points, 8.6 rebounds, 7.8 assists, 1.8 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game as a Laker. He is putting up 20.1 shots per game, which, over the course of a season, would just about be his lowest since he was a rookie.
This is who Doncic is, and he is not going to change too much, regardless of what Horry has to say. The Lakers wouldn’t want him to tweak his game a lot either. They might want him to cut down on some of those ill-advised deep threes, but that’s about it.
Getting back to Horry, there was something else that upset him on the night, too. The seven-time NBA champion could not understand why the Lakers stayed in zone defense despite the Magic having a lot of success against it.
“For me, if something’s not working, especially like a zone, you got to move back to what you used to, and that’s man-to-man defense,” Horry said. “And that was one of the things that I was looking at. I’m like, ‘Are they still in the zone? They getting waxed like this, they still in his zone?’ So, it didn’t make sense to me.”
Lakers head coach JJ Redick stuck with his gameplan, and Horry wasn’t a fan of that. He wanted the visitors to make an adjustment, and perhaps the outcome might have been different if they had.
James Worthy Wasn’t Happy With The Lakers’ Intensity On Defense
Horry wasn’t the only former Lakers champion to be displeased by what he saw from the team on the defensive end. James Worthy stated on Spectrum Sportsnet that he didn’t like the lack of intensity on that end of the floor.
“It feels like it wasn’t enough intensity on the defensive end,” Worthy said.
Even Redick admitted that the Lakers weren’t able to sustain their level of intensity throughout the game. He reckons the group is tired at this point in the season.
The Lakers allowed the Magic to shoot 49.4% from the field in this game. While that is not ideal, it was actually an improvement from the game before. The Chicago Bulls had shot a ridiculous 58.3% from the field against the Lakers on Saturday.
You wrote that off as an aberration, but teams have found it easier to score against the Lakers lately. They face off against the Indiana Pacers next at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Wednesday at 7:30 PM ET, and it will be interesting to see how they fare defensively in that clash.
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