Luka Doncic takes blame for ‘unacceptable’ night as Lakers fall

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.

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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 producing 20 of his 31 points after the break.

“That was the best I’ve felt since before the injury, for sure,” James said. “I just tried to press, get downhill. My rhythm, as far as my jump shot, felt pretty good today. I have been shooting it from the free throw line extremely well as of late. But that was probably the best physically I’ve felt so hopefully I can build off of that.”

The Lakers were able to cut the Warriors’ fourth-quarter lead from 14 to five with 4:37 remaining and again with 34.6 seconds left, but did not get any closer.

The Lakers host the undermanned New Orleans Pelicans on Friday on the second night of a back-to-back before going on the road to play a two-game set against the Oklahoma City Thunder, followed by a game Wednesday against the Dallas Mavericks in Doncic’s first return trip to face his former franchise.

The Lakers are one game up on the No. 5 Warriors but hold the tiebreaker from winning the season series 3-1. And L.A. is a half-game behind No. 3 Denver but the Nuggets hold the tiebreaker.

“It obviously felt like a playoff game,” Doncic said. Obviously, the Warriors, since they acquired Jimmy [Butler], they’ve been playing unbelievably. So it was kind of playoff game and now we see what kind of team they are. Maybe we can meet them, maybe not, in the playoffs. So, we just need to be more ready.”

James, who said he is “hopeful” to play against New Orleans, also kept the focus on L.A. when asked about Draymond Green’s bullishness about the Warriors’ championship chances this season.

“I have no idea, I can’t answer that question,” James said when asked how legitimate Green’s claim is when it comes to Golden State’s contender status. “I got to worry about us. I can’t be worrying about other teams. That ain’t my job.”