MVP of the night
With an average of 33.6 points, Luka Dončić is the best scorer in the NBAand you have to go back 20 years to find any trace of such a prolific Lakers player. It was Kobe Bryant. In a completely different style, but also in a different context, the Slovenian showed excellent consistency, and last night in the match he collected 36 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists. win against the Grizzlies.
It almost became a routine for him, and we saw him smile after these two consecutive 3-pointers to knock out the Grizzlies in the final quarter. “I smiled because I was happy” he answers. “It feels good to make two threes in a row. But those are good shots, and I have to keep working on that every day in practice and stay confident.”
The Slovenian was 2 of 8 from 3-point range prior to these two successes, but confidence does the rest, and he doesn’t hesitate to shoot, even from long range and even with a defender glued to him. It is important for JJ Redick to rely on the LeBron-Doncic duo in the 4th quarter with plenty of two-man play.
“It’s just our ’88’ system. It helped us a lot at the end of the game the other night. We called a timeout and said, ‘Next possession, play 88,’ and then we threw in some variations.” reveals the Lakers coach. “LeBron talked to me about it earlier in the game: He was doing a really good job of picking up passes from that play. We did some variations after the timeout, and it was a really good system for us.”
This two-man game is a keystone for the Lakers in the late game, and Luca feeds off this growing cohesion with LeBron James. “That’s how we have to finish games. I think we were down four points in the fourth quarter and then we came back to win by six. That’s what we have to do. LeBron and I have to finish games.” confirms the return of the Lakers.
2026-01-05 06:54:00
