By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Following elimination from the Emirates NBA Cup 2025, the focus of the Los Angeles Lakers naturally progressed to defensive struggles, since conceding 132 points in the Quarterfinals opposite the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday.
“Very good teams don’t have something that you can expose. We consistently got exposed on the same things,” mentioned JJ Redick in a postgame press conference following the losing effort in crypto.com Arena, referring to his side’s defense.
“I think it was more the defense,” confirmed Luka Doncic, commenting on the game. “They were just driving us. We scored like 120 points, so I think it’s enough to win. We just got to go better.”
“We’ve gotta figure out being better on the defensive end for sure,” added the 26-year-old Slovenian combo guard.
Knocked out of Cup contention and falling to 17-7 in the 2025-26 Regular Season, the Lakers resume action against the Phoenix Suns in Mortgage Matchup Center on Sunday.
“In the NBA, it’s 82 games. I wouldn’t say we’ve got time, but we need to figure out pretty quickly. I think our record is pretty good, 17-7. That’s a pretty good start, but I feel like we can be so much better than this,” said Doncic.
“We have a group that can do it, so we just got to figure out,” he furthered.
Over 18 appearances so far in his 2025-26 journey, Doncic has tallied a league-high 35.0 points per game to go with 9.0 rebounds, 9.0 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.6 blocks per contest.