Imagine being told Luka Doncic took 21 shots to score 23 points and had 11 turnovers. Without watching the game, you would probably think: "Yikes. That was a rough performance." It was. Make no mistake about that. You would also assume the Los Angeles Lakers lost the game, right? Wrong.
The Lakers still came away victorious with an ugly 125-117 win over the Los Angeles Clippers in spite of the offensive woes from their franchise superstar. There is encouragement to be found in that.
Think about how reliant the Lakers have been on Doncic to carry the load since his arrival in Los Angeles. Remind yourself that Luka led the league in usage percentage (38.1) last season out of necessity for the team to be at their best. Suddenly, the group around him is picking up the slack.
That is a welcomed sight.
Luka Doncic's struggles were painful to watch against the Clippers
There is no shortage of praise around here when Doncic has elite outings and carries the Lakers. When Luka does not deliver, it must be judged just as fairly. Simply put: this one was a bit of a stinker for one of the best offensive players in the world.
Doncic's 11 turnovers featured a bunch of ill-advised and often careless passes. Luka airmailed balls similar to that of an NFL quarterback just begging to be intercepted by the defense. He was. The Clippers jumped all over the mistakes being dished around the floor.
There were more turnovers for Doncic than there were field goals in this one. Luka struggled as a scorer, only hitting eight of his 21 attempts from the field. A bunch of that included jacking up 3-point shots that were just not finding the bottom of the basket.
It would be unfair to paint this as a performance that had no redeeming qualities. Timely buckets and playmaking still showed up for the Slovenian superstar. Even so, it was far from the type of individual performance Doncic would ever boast about.
Lakers proved they can win without Luka Doncic being at his best
The neat thing about basketball would be that it is not an individual sport.
What happened when Doncic was missing shots? Austin Reaves quietly took over with an efficient offensive performance that was only dampened by turnover struggles of his own.
What happened when Luka was gifting possessions to the Clippers with his turnovers? Walker Kessler was cleaning shots at the rim. Matisse Thybulle and Ziaire Williams were creating takeaways of their own.
A game like the one against the Clippers showed exactly why the Lakers wanted to build out the depth of this roster. Even without Adou Thiero, Jake LaRavia, and Cameron Carr, the supporting cast did their part to lift up their superstar when he was down.
The San Antonio Spurs are still able to win games when Victor Wembanyama has off nights. The Oklahoma City Thunder are a well-oiled machine that can overcome Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's rougher outings, too. The Lakers have their first example of being able to do the same with Luka this season.
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