The Los Angeles Lakers suffered their largest defeat of the season on Wednesday, as the Oklahoma City Thunder blew them out 121-92 at Paycom Center. Superstar guard Luka Doncic struggled against that mighty Thunder defense, and former Laker Robert Horry was quite critical of him postgame on Access SportsNet.
“If you could put a side-by-side of Luka shots and Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander’s] shots, they were pretty much the same shots,” Horry said. “But what makes it different is Luka’s shots were all contested. That shows you how good this team is defensively.
“You just saw all [Gilgeous-Alexander’s] shots, only one shot was really contested, and he used, like [Shaquille O’Neal] would say, some feetwork, got around him and got a layup,” Horry continued. That’s the thing about this guy, he’s so elusive.
“And Luka, he’s trying so hard to be that guy to take shots,” Horry added. “And a lot of his shots to me, I hate to say this, were bad shots because you got 3 defenders on you. Move the ball, it’ll come back to you. Because apparently the whole team are scared to shoot sometime because they want to get you the rock… It wears you down as a player because you’re taking such difficult shots.”
Whether you like it or not, Doncic will always take at least a handful of difficult shots in every game, as that is just his game. The Slovenian is one of the best tough-shot makers in the NBA, but there are invariably going to be some nights when a lot of them don’t go in.
Doncic finished with 19 points (7-20 FG), seven rebounds, seven assists, and two steals against the Thunder, as the Lakers fell to 8-4. It was the five-time All-Star’s worst game of the season by a fair bit. The Lakers were going to find it difficult to take down the Thunder, the defending champions, even if Doncic played well, and his poor play ensured this would be a blowout.
While Doncic struggled against the NBA’s best defense, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander tore apart the Lakers. Gilgeous-Alexander put up 30 points (10-18 FG), five rebounds, nine assists, and two steals for the Thunder. The reigning MVP played just three quarters and made everything look rather effortless.
Luka Doncic Will Never Make Robert Horry’s All-Time Top-5 List
Doncic completely won over Laker Nation not long after he arrived via trade from the Dallas Mavericks in February 2025, but Horry has had some concerns regarding him. The seven-time NBA champion once said that the guard’s offensive skills won’t mean much if he doesn’t play defense.
Later in the offseason, Horry made it clear that Doncic will never get into his list of the five greatest players of all time.
“No, Luka would never make that [list],” said Horry on the Travis & DeMarco Show. “I love Luka’s game, but you gotta be able to play defense. I’m old school. You’ve got to be able to play defense for me. I love Luka’s game, but look at guys like MJ, Kobe, Olajuwon, Duncan, LeBron, and Kareem. All these guys, to me, played on both ends of the court.”
Doncic has shown some improvement on the defensive end, but he is never going to become a great defender. The 26-year-old isn’t athletic enough, and with how much of a load he carries on offense, there is only so much effort he is going to give on the other end.
The Lakers can live with that as long as Doncic delivers on offense the way he had prior to the game against the Thunder. You would expect him to get back on track when they take on the New Orleans Pelicans at Smoothie King Center on Friday at 8 PM ET.
