The Los Angeles Lakers lost a close 100-97 game to the Charlotte Hornets. The Lakers led by 13 at one point, but fumbled their lead and weren’t able to find a way back into the game. One of the reasons the Hornets were able to beat the Lakers was Luka Doncic. A video has surfaced online that shows how the Hornets consistently targeted Doncic on the defensive end repeatedly near the end of the game.
Hornets offense in the clutch was basically “go find Luka” and it worked.
Teams are going to do this often. Lakers just don’t have the defensive infrastructure to insulate him like the Mavs did. https://t.co/TJaYJRKiqd pic.twitter.com/O1VSiF0NBD
— Esfandiar Baraheni (@JustEsBaraheni) February 20, 2025
The Hornets targeted Doncic for seven possessions in the last seven minutes of the game, scoring 11 points of made shots. This just goes to show one of the biggest concerns surrounding Luka Doncic on the Lakers. Doncic is an average defender on his best day, and the Lakers are far from being a strong defensive team.
As time goes on, teams targeting Doncic during the closing stretches of a game might become a regular occurrence. Luka must focus on getting better on defense, as this has been a problem for a long time with him. A video surfaced around the start of the season showing his lazy defense and bad attitude becoming a problem for the Mavericks.
The Los Angeles Lakers as a team must be better defensively, even more so now that Luka Doncic is on their team. For all the brilliance Luka can provide to a team offensively when he is at his best, he is just as weak on the defensive end, despite having the size, frame, and tools to be a great defender.
Perhaps the Lakers coaching staff will use tonight’s game as an example of why Doncic needs to pay more attention on the defensive end. Regardless of how this season goes for the Lakers, the Slovenian star must spend some time during the offseason working on his defensive skills.
Doncic Struggling On Both Ends With Lakers
While frustrating, Lakers fans are probably not surprised by Luka Doncic’s defensive failures, as he has long been known as a weak defender. However, his offensive performances in his first three games with the Lakers have not been up to the mark.
With the Lakers, Doncic has averaged 14.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 0.7 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game while shooting 35.6% from the field, 20.8% from beyond the arc, and 58.3% from the charity stripe. These numbers are not what people expect from Luka.
In fairness to Doncic, he is coming off the most serious injury of his career, one that sidelined him for almost two months. On top of that, he is adjusting to a new team and a different set of teammates, coaches, and offensive sets. As such, his inability to perform at the same level as before isn’t too surprising.
Doncic himself spoke after tonight’s game and claimed that he needed more time to adapt to the Lakers’ offense. JJ Redick is looking forward to integrating the former All-Star into his offense in the weeks to come. Perhaps his current offensive dry spell is just a result of rust. But he will need to improve sooner rather than later if the Lakers want to make a strong playoff run.
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