The Luka Doncic era with the Los Angeles Lakers is not off to a hot start.
LA is 1-2, and this ain't the Luka we're accustomed to seeing. Since putting on the purple and gold, Luka has been averaging 15 points, seven boards, five assists, and shooting woefully from the field. From an efficiency standpoint, he's never been Steve Nash, but a true shooting percentage of 44 is putrid.
Offensively, there's no need to overreact to these outings. Luka hadn't played since Christmas before his Lakers debut. He's still working out the kinks of playing with a player that's bigger than life in LeBron James. I can't picture a scenario where this is who Luka Doncic is now. So don't go around parading the Mavericks trading him as a success because of a slow start. He'll be back.
However, on the other end, things might be worse than before.
The Mavericks covered up for Luka in a way the Lakers can't with this roster
Luka has always struggled on the defensive side of the ball. This didn't hurt the Mavericks much last season, as he led them to the NBA Finals. Dallas' defensive infrastructure allowed Luka to get hidden until they made it to the Finals. Boston hunted Luka repeatedly and destroyed the Mavericks with drives and kicks off, blowing by Luka.
His defense didn't bite them until the Finals (even then, Kyrie Irving no-showing plagued Dallas more), but these Lakers don't have any semblance of that Mavs team. Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively were massive rim protectors who shredded scorers at the rim. Luka's defense funneled scorers into those paint beasts. You can't funnel bucket-getters to Jaxson Hayes and think he'll deter them from scoring.
PJ Washington and Derrick Jones Jr. were feisty, switchable defenders who took the A+ difficulty matchups on the way to the Finals for Dallas last year. The Lakers starting wings are LeBron, Rui Hachimura, and Austin Reaves. LeBron isn't that level of defender consistently anymore; Reaves gives effort and fights, but physical limitations are hard to negate. Hachimura isn't a plus defender and doesn't do the dirty work Washington and Jones did last year. These guys can't help you hide Luka.
The Lakers dropped their second game in a row with Doncic in the lineup against the Cooper Flagg-hopeful Charlotte Hornets. They took a page from the Celtics book and relentlessly hunted Luka in the final period.
Hornets offense in the clutch was basically “go find Luka” and it worked.
— Esfandiar Baraheni (@JustEsBaraheni) February 20, 2025
Teams are going to do this often. Lakers just don’t have the defensive infrastructure to insulate him like the Mavs did. https://t.co/TJaYJRKiqd pic.twitter.com/O1VSiF0NBD
Granted, Luka was in foul trouble and wanted to be out there with his guys. He got a few stops, but when a team hunts you down every possession, it isn't easy to cover that up. Dorian Finney-Smith isn't a starter in LA (he should be), but he closes games as the defense-first player he is.
In many of those possessions, he's cheating to help Luka. The Hornets played great team basketball and found the open man when Luka and Finney-Smith were on the ball. Most teams will do the same thing if Luka can't stick his man 1-on-1, and the Lakers are forced to double. All the playoff teams will thrive playing 4-on-3 basketball.
If the Lakers can't cover for Lukas's biggest deficiency or if he can't guard, it will be a tough road making noise in the playoffs. Luka plus LeBron in a playoff setting is a scary duo, as both stars historically get better in the postseason. But there are two sides of the court, and during Luka's magical playoff runs, the Mavericks covered for him.