Luka Doncic takes blame on his shoulders after unacceptable performance against Warriors

Los Angeles Lakers talisman Luka Doncic took the onus of the loss against Golden State Warriors on his shoulders as he admitted his performance was unacceptable on Thursday night. The Lakers suffered a 123-116 loss to the Warriors as Doncic finished with 19 points on 6-for-17 shooting.

“That performance from me was unacceptable,” Doncic said after the defeat dropped L.A. to No. 4 in the Western Conference standings with six games remaining in the regular season. “When I play like that, that makes [it] harder [for the team] to win, so just got to figure that out.”

The Slovenian shot 0-6 for the three-pointers, breaking his 114-match streak of scoring at least one three. 

Doncic was wearing a heavy bandage on his left elbow but didn’t use the injury as an excuse for his sub-par performance.

“It’s fine,” Doncic said. “That’s my left [arm], so it’s fine. I was shooting with the right. It [just] looked like [the] left.”

At the end of the first half, the Lakers shot just 35.7% and trailed 60-47.

“It was not what they were doing,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said of Golden State’s defensive impact early on. “It was what we were doing. And we showed them at halftime. The spacing alignments [were incorrect] and having the wrong guy in the dunker spot, the wrong guy in the corner.”

Meanwhile, LeBron James scored 25 of his 33 points whereas Austin Reaves scored 20 of his 31 points after the break but it was not enough in the end.

“That was the best I’ve felt since before the injury, for sure,” James said. “I just tried to press, get downhill. My rhythm, as far as my jump shot, felt pretty good today. I have been shooting it from the free throw line extremely well as of late. But that was probably the best physically I’ve felt so hopefully I can build off of that.”

The Lakers will next take on the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday.