Luka Doncic has taken the team's onus in the absence of LeBron James and delivered yet again on Wednesday in a crucial Western Conference encounter against the Denver Nuggets at the Crypto.com arena. The Slovenian stood out by notching 31 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists. His contribution formed a convincing scoreline of 120-108 in favor of the LA Lakers.
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Shannon Sharpe On Rare Downside About Luka Doncic's Game
Considering how he has been faring lately, the Lakers' have seemingly invested in the right asset. The former Mavericks guard had a slow start to his stint with the Lakers, but Doncic eventually picked up and has reached the peak of his powers, influencing games with his skillset regularly. While Luka Doncic has been exceptional of late, there are still areas in his game which do not appeal to the experts. Famed analyst Shannon Sharpe has paid heed to it and simply put it out as something the world would have to come to terms with about Luka.
On last night's Nightcap episode, Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson discussed Luka's ups and downs. While they couldn't help but laugh at Luka's behind-the-back turnover as he was going out of bounds, they acknowledged that if you want all the greatness that Luka brings, you have to be willing to accept the occasional head-scratching play.
“That’s Luka. You have to accept the good with the bad,” Sharpe said. “That’s his game, that’s how he plays. You have to be willing to roll with that.”
Turnovers have always been a part of Luka's game, but he's given the ball away more since joining the Lakers than he did earlier this year as a Maverick. His 4.3 turnovers per game in 16 games with Los Angeles rank fourth in the league, after only Trae Young, Cade Cunningham, and James Harden.
Next on the list is Luka's teammate, LeBron James. This underlines one area of concern for the Lakers in the postseason: if their two stars cough up the ball at such a high rate, it may be difficult to overcome, particularly against the toughest defensive teams in the West, such as OKC and Minnesota.