The Minnesota Timberwolves defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 103-96 in Game 5 of their Playoff series to proceed to the next round. After the Lakers were eliminated from the 2025 NBA Playoffs, Luka Doncic candidly spoke to the media about the lack of chemistry in the team due to a lack of practice with the team. However, he remained optimistic instead of pointing fingers at any single factor in building this chemistry.
A media member asked him about the Lakers’ struggle in the fourth quarter and whether the lack of practice with Austin Reaves and LeBron James was a factor in those struggles. To which he said, “I think it might be, it might be not. So I don’t really know. You know it’s tough to get that chemistry on the court without any practices. So I’m really excited to have the preseason with those two, so we can learn about each other on court a lot.”
“You know, I look back like with Kyrie, when he got traded to the Mavs, we didn’t really connect on the court. Like we didn’t really know each other, each other’s games. Obviously see the game, but you don’t see in the game as teammates. So we can see next year we kind of just we had preseason together and it was just amazing. And that’s how I look at it you know it’s tough not having practices and that stuff. But I’m excited about the preseason, having to learn about each other.”
What Does This Mean For Luka Doncic, Lakers?
Luka Doncic left his all on the offensive end of the floor in this series. He averaged 30.2 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 5.8 assists in five games against the Timberwolves. Playing through a back injury, Doncic struggled to keep up on defense. However, his defensive struggles are not new information. During his time with the Mavericks, Doncic went to the NBA Finals with Kyrie Irving, Dereck Lively, and more defenders on his team who helped protect the rim when a player drove past him on defense.
When the same thing happened with the Lakers, no one was there to help as well, and the lack of an experienced big man on the Lakers meant a lack of rim protection. This was visibly exploited by the Timberwolves in most games of the series. Therefore, among other issues that the Lakers will need to resolve in the preseason, the key issue they will look to fix is building player chemistry.
Kyrie was a new addition to the Mavericks team in the middle of the 2022-23 season. Like Luka said, they used the preseason time after Kyrie’s first season in Dallas to get to know each other’s style of play and build the chemistry from their practices together. Similarly, now with Doncic in the same position at the Lakers, he will look to build the team chemistry and come back stronger next season.
Will the Lakers be able to find their chemistry? Will they trade for a big man who is a lob threat and rim protector like what Luka needed at the Mavericks? It will be interesting to see how the Lakers approach these problems in the offseason. Let us know what you think in the comments section.
