The Los Angeles Lakers were expected to extend their winning streak to eight when the Phoenix Suns came to Crypto.com Arena on Monday. The Lakers were on a roll entering the contest, but were surprisingly blown out 125-108 by an undermanned Suns team. A big reason for the loss was the Lakers losing the turnover battle 22-11, and Luka Doncic took responsibility in his postgame press conference.
“Yeah, that was my fault,” Doncic said, via Spectrum SportsNet. “No way I can have nine turnovers in the game. So in that second quarter… they were giving me the shots, instead of shooting the ball, I feel like I was trying to get (everybody) involved. But there’s no way I should have nine turnovers.”
Of Doncic’s nine turnovers, four came in the second quarter, and they helped the Suns seize control of the game. The teams were tied at 31 after the first quarter, but the visitors then pulled away and took a 66-52 lead into halftime. The Suns never looked back after that and led by as many as 25 points on the night.
As for how the Suns managed to force Doncic into having a new season-high for turnovers, he admitted their defensive strategy confused him a bit.
“I feel like definitely it was different defense than other teams,” Doncic stated. “Kind of trying to let me go score instead of creating for others. So it was kind of confusing. But like I said, just can’t have that.”
Doncic certainly had no trouble scoring. The Slovenian had 20 points in the first quarter and ended the night with 38 points (15-26 FG), 11 rebounds, and five assists. That was a season-low for assists, though, so the game plan did work.
Things can go horribly wrong when you’re trying to make a player like Doncic score all the time instead of creating for his teammates, but the Suns crucially managed to get those turnovers and make shots at a great clip. They went 52-92 (56.5%) from the field and 17-39 (43.6%) from beyond the arc on the night.
Generating turnovers can also help a team get a lot of easy points, and that’s what happened here. The Suns had 32 points off turnovers compared to just 13 for the Lakers. They also had a massive 28-2 advantage in fast-break points.
The 13-9 Suns were the first team with a winning record that the Lakers had faced in a little while, and they came up well short against them. This was despite Devin Booker leaving the game in the first quarter due to a groin injury. The Suns were also without Jalen Green and Grayson Allen, and they still dispatched the Lakers in style to drop them to 15-5.
The Lakers now have a couple more games against teams with winning records coming up, and Doncic was asked what needs to change to ensure there isn’t a repeat of this Suns game.
“First of all, take care of the ball, obviously,” Doncic said. “But then just be more physical. I feel like they make a lot of shots, too. So we got to work on that, too. So take care of the ball on the offensive end and be more physical on defensive end.”
That is a recipe for success. The Lakers take on the 14-7 Toronto Raptors at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday at 7:30 PM ET, and they’d stand a good chance of winning if they do what Doncic said there.
