It’s often said that you shouldn’t poke the bear that is Luka Doncic, but some Miami Heat players did it anyway during their 130-120 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday. Doncic drew a foul on Davion Mitchell in the third quarter of the contest, and a few players on the Heat’s bench had some words for him as he walked in front of them.
So, Doncic, who was already a little bit frustrated about Mitchell not being called for a shooting foul, decided to do something special on the very next play. The 26-year-old scored after putting Bam Adebayo on skates and then stared down the Heat’s bench as he ran back the other way.
Keep in mind, Adebayo is one of the best defensive players in the NBA today. He has made five All-Defensive teams and has been a candidate to win Defensive Player of the Year on multiple occasions. Adebayo is adept at defending guards on the perimeter, too, but Doncic easily got the better of him with that crossover.
Doncic is one of those players you really shouldn’t be talking trash to, as it almost never ends well. The Phoenix Suns infamously found that out the hard way when the Slovenian took them down in the Western Conference Semifinals in 2022. The Suns had the best record in the NBA at 64-14, and Doncic helped the Mavericks blow them out 123-90 in Game 7 in Phoenix.
If you had told someone back then that the Dallas Mavericks would trade Doncic of their own volition in 2025, they would have laughed in your face. Shipping out a player of this caliber, especially when he doesn’t want to go, is something we had never seen in NBA history, but the Mavericks, who are now 2-4, did it in February.
The Lakers are the beneficiaries of what is looking like one of the worst mistakes ever made in all of professional sports. Doncic recorded his first triple-double of the season against the Heat by putting up 29 points (9-22 FG), 11 rebounds, 10 assists, and three steals. Such has been the five-time All-Star’s start to the campaign, though, that this was his worst game so far.
Doncic hit the 40-point mark in each of his first three games of this season. The 26-year-old became just the second player in NBA history to pull that off after the one and only Wilt Chamberlain.
Chamberlain had streaks of seven and five, and you’d thought that Doncic could perhaps get to the latter number himself, but it wasn’t to be. The win was all that mattered to him, but he did point out that they could have gotten to 150 points if he and Austin Reaves had shot the ball better.
Reaves had 26 points on 9-22 shooting from the field as well. While they shot poorly, the duo combined for 21 assists to ensure that the offense continued to run smoothly.
Doncic and Reaves have now helped the Lakers get to 5-2 in the 2025-26 season. They are third in the West, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if they end up improving on their 50-32 record from 2024-25.
Of those two losses, the latest one came at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers on Oct. 27. Doncic did not play in that contest and watched on as the Trail Blazers won 122-108. He’d be looking to even the season series when the teams face off at the Moda Center on Monday at 10 PM ET.
