The LA Lakers suffered a devastating loss to the Golden State Warriors on Thursday. It was an all-star affair at the Crypto.com arena as some of the big names to ever grace the game were on the court locking horns. The behemoths, LeBron James and Stephen Curry, stepped up for their respective teams in the high-stakes encounter. However, Luka Doncic, who had the baggage of an overwhelming expectation, had a quiet game as per usual standards. Though the Slovenian still managed to rake in 19 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists, he was visibly not at his best in the game and accepted that the loss was on him following the end of the match.
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Luka Doncic Assumes Blame for Lakers' Loss
Luka Doncic, who was constantly notching scores in excess or around the 30-point mark, struggled on this occasion and as a consequence Lakers could not cover the deficit of 7 points in the end. This result has pushed the Lakers to the 4th spot on the Western Table.
Doncic took the blame for the loss and accepted that he was below par and the team paid for it.
“That performance from me was unacceptable,” Doncic said in his postgame media availability, via ESPN. “When I play like that, that makes [it] harder [for the team] to win, so just got to figure that out.”
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Luka Doncic Injury Concern
Concerning visuals followed as Doncic appeared injured. His left elbow was wrapped in kinesiology tape and iced. However, he appeased the tensions by stating that it was not a big deal.
“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.”
Doncic has played with injury before. The onus will be on the Lakers to keep him healthy for the playoffs by they are at a precarious position. They are just 1.5 games out of being in the play-in tournament. Hence, cannot afford to lose a player like Luka Doncic.