Luka Doncic takes blame for 'unacceptable' night as Lakers fall - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — Luka Doncic hit his first shot Thursday night, scoring on a running finger roll in the opening minutes of his baptism into the Golden State Warriors-Lakers rivalry.

But there weren't many highlights for Doncic after that, as he finished with 19 points on 6-for-17 shooting in L.A.'s 123-116 loss to the Warriors.

«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.»

Doncic's shooting woes extended to the 3-point range, where he went 0-for-6, snapping a 114-game streak of making at least one 3 dating nearly two years to April 7, 2023. It was the fifth longest such streak in NBA history.

The Lakers guard's left elbow was heavily wrapped in kinesiology tape and iced, but he did not blame the injury for his off night.

«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.»

The Warriors used a switch everything brand of defense, which rattled L.A. in the first half, as it 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.»

The Lakers rallied to score 69 points in the second half, with LeBron James, who was playing in his seventh game since returning from a two-week absence because of a strained left groin, scoring 25 of his 33 points and Austin Reaves