The Los Angeles Lakers might have come up short in their season-opening loss to the Golden State Warriors, but one thing that is for sure is that Luka Doncic is already is set for perhaps his best season yet. The Lakers superstar finished with 43 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists and two steals in the Lakers’ 10-point loss.
Coming off an offseason that inspired a ton of confidence in how he would perform this year, Doncic looked every part the MVP candidate that many expect him to be. But Luka is a competitor first and foremost and the fact that this performance came in a loss won’t sit well with him
After the game, however, Doncic noted that his confidence in himself and the Lakers remained just fine, though he added the team still needs to figure out their third quarter issues.
“I mean obviously we have many more games to go but obviously we want to win every game,” Luka said after the game. “I think there were a lot of positive things tonight. And obviously there are a lot of things that we need to work on. Especially in the third quarter, we’ve got to figure that out. But my confidence is fine.”
Doncic would continue on, reiterating that there were some positives to take away from the loss.
“Obviously, we have 81 games to go, but obviously want to win every game. There was a lot of positive things, obviously a lot of things that we need to work on, especially [in the] third quarter. We got to figure that out.”
The third quarter issues are something that have been an issue for the Lakers even since before Luka joined the purple and gold. It is something head coach JJ Redick pointed to as well as something this team has to figure out going forward and there is no doubt that this team won’t be able to reach its potential until they are able to come out of halftime better.
But the Lakers also feel that their issues are fixable things within their control and Doncic still has full confidence in this team’s ability to compete with any squad in the league.
Austin Reaves says Lakers’ third quarter issues are on the players
These third quarter issues are not something new for the Lakers and Austin Reaves has been experiencing it for multiple seasons now. And he believes these issues are the problems of the players not executing properly, and not a failure on the coaches.
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