The Los Angeles Lakers fell to a rough 97-100 loss at home against the Charlotte Hornets in Luka Doncic’s third game with the franchise. Doncic had an especially rough night, putting up 14 points (5-18 FG), 11 rebounds, eight assists, and going 1-9 from three in a loss where even a marginally better performance could’ve brought home a win.
Head coach JJ Redick isn’t discouraged by the early struggles they have had with Doncic. In the post-game press conference, Redick said he was excited about having options like Doncic and LeBron James, especially in late-game situations.
“There’s some interchangeable parts in some of the late-game stuff. As a coach, you’re excited that you have two guys that can be the passer and be the guy who gets the pass, but it felt like LeBron [James], particularly in the fourth, just found a nice rhythm and felt really comfortable with that. We got two good looks.”
“Sometimes when the group is trying to get acclimated with each other, you try to play the right way too much and turn down shots… I think the flow of everything is gonna happen. I’m excited, this is a new problem to solve and we’ll work our butts off to solve it. I’m excited about us being able to generate this stuff, getting two on the ball, and we’ll try to re-emphasize the type of show we want.”
"That's just the reality of having 6 days off as a group and trying to integrate new pieces."
JJ Redick speaks to the media after the Lakers' 100-97 loss to the Hornets. pic.twitter.com/lWLgdJpL3l
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) February 20, 2025
The Lakers are coming off losing back-to-back games to the 14th seed in both conferences and are now 1-2 since Doncic has joined the roster. Considering they were 9-1 in the 10 games before that with some impressive wins, fans aren’t happy to see the team go through this regression.
Doncic is struggling, averaging 14.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 5.3 assists in three games as a Laker. He opened up on his struggles after the game as well, revealing that he’s struggling with rust after never having missed so much time in the middle of a season in his career before.
“I’ve never missed this much time, so this is something new to me.”
Hopefully, the process of integration becomes easier now that the players are getting more familiar with each other.
The Lakers do have a 32-21 record now, giving them some headway to go through growing pains, but if they were targeting a top seed with Doncic, they need to ensure they win tomorrow against the tanking Portland Trail Blazers.
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