The Los Angeles Lakers look the part of a Finals team since trading for Luka Doncic, and they recently dominated the best player in the world.
Over their last ten games, the Los Angeles Lakers are 8-2, and have risen up to the fourth spot in the Western Conference standings. Through his first three games with the Purple and Gold, Luka Doncic didn’t look the part of a superstar, but it was clear that he would eventually take over as the face of the franchise.
On Saturday night, he emerged as his usual All-NBA self, scoring 32 points against the Denver Nuggets to go with ten rebounds and seven assists in the Lakers’ 123-100 win.
In the very real event that the Lakers and Nuggets meet in the postseason for the third straight season, the Nuggets could certainly be in trouble, as it appears that the Lakers can beat them on two different fronts.
Any time the Nuggets match up against any team, Nikola Jokic will be able to dominate. The three-time MVP could very realistically win his fourth Michael Jordan Trophy this season and has been a thorn in the Lakers’ side for the last several seasons.
However, in Saturday’s matchup, he took only seven shots, tied for the lowest this season. Rui Hachimura, Dorian Finney-Smith, LeBron James, and Doncic all had turns guarding the Joker, and all four were able to keep up.
After the game, JJ Redick conceded that guarding the world’s best player is best handled by a committee.
“He leads the NBA in touches, and he’s going to touch the ball,” outlined Redick after the game.
“We tried to limit his touches as much as possible, thought Rui was outstanding, he was a warrior tonight.
“All the guys who had primary turns on him, LeBron for sure, Vando setting the tone with his physicality, ‘Do [Finney-Smith] as well, any time a small got switched on as well, we just stuck with what we were trying to do and had to live with some things, but that’s what we were willing to live with.”
Jokic did add 13 rebounds and ten assists for yet another triple-double, but he was held to a plus/minus of -11, one of his worst outings of the season, so the Lakers successfully mitigated the damage on the defensive side of the ball.
Perhaps no player in the NBA has fared better against the Nuggets than Luka Doncic. In his seven NBA seasons, he is averaging 27.4 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 9.6 assists against Denver while shooting 44.3% from the field and 33.1% from deep. All of those numbers are on par with his career averages, proving that Denver simply can’t slow him down.
As noted, the Lakers have run into a wall when facing off against the Nuggets in their last two playoff series, although adding Doncic certainly won’t hurt.
Losing Anthony Davis, who is one of the few players who can rival Jokic, hasn’t been as detrimental as one might have thought, and as Vanderbilt continues to return from injury, the Lakers will have several options when it comes to slowing down the Nuggets and the reigning MVP.
Even if the Lakers have to travel to Denver in a best-of-seven series, it’s hard to imagine a tandem of James and Doncic getting outclassed by Jokic and his solid cast of supporting players. Doncic made it clear that the Lakers want to win a title this season.
“Our goal is to win the championship,” Doncic declared. “That’s our only goal, and I think we have the team for that, obviously, the chemistry with me and the guys is going to take a little time still, but like you saw today, I think it’s getting better and better.”
Once Doncic is firing on all cylinders both physically and mentally on his new team, the Lakers should emerge as the team to beat.
