Luka Doncic put up a monster line of 43 points, 13 assists, and nine rebounds against the Clippers on Tuesday to help the Lakers clinch a spot in the NBA Cup quarterfinals, but he had an axe to grind in his post-game media session. As Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes, Doncic isn’t a fan of the special court at Crypto.com Arena for NBA Cup games.
“It’s just slippery. It’s dangerous,” Doncic said. “I slipped. I slipped a lot of times, and you could see a lot of players slipped. And that’s dangerous, man.”
According to Doncic, he didn’t notice any issues with the NBA Cup courts in Memphis or New Orleans during earlier group play games, but he was having traction problems during pre-game warmups on Tuesday and asked a court attendant to do an extra sweep of the floor — it didn’t help.
The Lakers, aware of Doncic’s concerns, are hoping to improve the court before it’s used again on Friday in the team’s final round robin matchup with Dallas, McMenamin writes.
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- Starting center Deandre Ayton sat out on Tuesday due to a right knee contusion, but the Lakers aren’t anticipating an extended absence for the big man, according to Khobi Price of The Southern California News Group (subscription required). Head coach JJ Redick said there’s some swelling to deal with, but imaging on the knee came back clean. “Don’t think it’s going to be a long-term thing,” Redick said. “Hopefully it’s a game-to-game thing, and he’s back at some point by the end of the week.”
- Reserve center Jaxson Hayes got his second start of the season with Ayton out and acquitted himself well — he was a team-high +21 in his 30 minutes of action and came to Doncic’s defense during an altercation with Kris Dunn, as Dan Woike of The Athletic details. After being knocked to the floor by Dunn while battling for rebounding position, Doncic got up to confront the Clippers guard, who responded by pushing the basketball into Doncic’s chest (Twitter video link). Hayes shoved Dunn, resulting in a brief altercation between the two teams. Dunn was ejected and Hayes was hit with a technical foul. “I got (Hayes’ fine for the technical),” Doncic said (Twitter link via Price). “I told him right away.”
- Fans in Los Angeles didn’t get a long look at new two-way player Drew Timme in his Lakers debut on Tuesday, as he played just 72 minutes of garbage time in the fourth quarter. However, Redick expressed enthusiasm during his pregame media session about what Timme can do when called upon (Twitter video link via Price). “I think he’s tremendously skilled offensively,” Redick said. “… The thing that’s kind of underrated with him is his defensive rebounding is really good, particularly for his size. He’s produced at every level and I’m looking forward to coaching him.”