Luka Dončić’s ‘inner demon’ helps Lakers ascend to No. 2 seed in the West https://t.co/H7FzSDQyxC— LakerTom (@LakerTom) March 3, 2025
Dončić’s ‘inner demon’ helps Lakers ascend to No. 2 seed in West
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March 3, 2025 3 Comments
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No one brings out Dončić’s “inner demon” quite like the Clippers, whom Dončić has tortured for years. The Clippers won their 2020 and 2021 playoff matchups against the Dallas Mavericks in six and seven games, respectively, but Dončić led the Mavs to a six-game first-round series win last April. In his 19 playoff games against the Clippers, Doncic has averaged 32.4 points, 8.8 rebounds and 9.5 assists.
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Entering Sunday’s game, Dončić has averaged 32.5 points per game against the Clippers in the regular season — his highest average against an opponent he has played at least 10 times (28 of the 30 teams qualify, with Dallas and Detroit being the two exceptions).
“Maybe, obviously,” Dončić said when asked if he enjoyed getting testy with the Clippers. “We went back and forth a lot with the Clippers. That’s what I like. For me, that’s fun. And that’s how I get going, especially on the basketball court.”
The Lakers were plus-19 in his 36 minutes, the second-best mark on the team behind Dorian Finney-Smith (plus-24). Outside of the Denver win, this was as comfortable as Dončić has looked offensively as a Laker.
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“It just seemed like throughout the game, when we needed a bucket, when we needed him to draw a second, third defender at times, he was able to make the right play — minus the six turnovers,” Redick said.
Dončić’s teammates fed off his energy and hot start, leading to another inspired defensive effort.
“You’ve got a guy in your corner going Super Saiyan, for lack of a better word,” Gabe Vincent said. “And making great plays, hitting shots, it’s a lot of fun. It can give us a lot of life, and we’ve been creating a lot of energy on the defensive side. And when he gets hot offensively, we feel like we can’t be stopped in that regard.”
With the Lakers down two starters in Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura, their third- and fourth-leading scorers, and an emerging and important bench player in two-way guard Jordan Goodwin, they needed all of the help they could get offensively. The Lakers’ offense has mostly funneled through James, Dončić, Reaves and Hachimura in their brief period together. Without Reaves and Hachimura, the Lakers offense takes a significant hit.
Reaves is day-to-day with a right calf strain. The injury isn’t expected to cost him a significant amount of time. Hachimura’s injury is slightly more serious. He’s out with left patellar tendinopathy through at least Friday, when the Lakers’ medical staff will reassess him. With the Lakers playing the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on Saturday, Hachimura’s potential absence looms as a swing factor.