It's no secret that Luka Doncic's defense for the Los Angeles Lakers has been sub-par this season. Analysts are talking about it, fans are making highlight videos exposing it, and Lakers head coach JJ Redick has not-so-subtly hinted at it during postgame press conferences.
Oh yeah, and NBC's Reggie Miller lambasted Luka's effort on national television.
Lakers fans are as frustrated as anyone with Luka's defensive carelessness. It's all over social media.
Yahoo's Kevin O'Connor even recently predicted that Lakers fans will soon turn on Luka. All of this is what makes DeMarcus Cousins' recent take during Run It Back so off-putting. Cousins essentially argued that Luka doesn't get flak for his defense.
Cousins' Luka Doncic take has Lakers fans wondering if he's been sleeping under a rock
"The same energy y'all had for James Harden, have the same energy for Luka Doncic." 🗣️
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) January 5, 2026
Boogie Cousins calls out how the goal posts have moved for elite offensive players that bring less value on defense 😳@MichelleDBeadle | @boogiecousins | @ChandlerParsons | @TeamLou23 pic.twitter.com/VbiT4hegix
Cousins brought up the Houston Rockets-era James Harden as a ball-centric superstar who was criticized heavily for his style of play and lackluster defense. In Cousins' opinion, Luka has a lot of the same strengths and weaknesses as Harden, but for some reason doesn't receive the same criticism.
"The same energy y'all had for James Harden, have the same energy for Luka Doncic," Cousins asserted.
This take from Cousins was far from a sound one, and you could tell from the expression on Lou Williams' face that he was thinking what we all were.
Luka has been getting absolutely killed on social media over the last couple of weeks for his defensive effort, with many Lakers fans scapegoating Luka's laziness on D as the main reason for LA's 5-7 record in December. People are teeing off on Luka these days, and his poor defense has even opened up discussions about his other flaws.
While LeBron James undeniably takes nights off defensively, fans are far more forgiving on account of him being 41 years old. In fact, any online discourse about LeBron's shortcomings on defense inevitably lead back to Luka.
It goes something like, "LeBron's way too old to be playing hard on defense every night. But you know who isn't?"
In truth, Luka's relative youth (26) and supposed desire to be among the game's greatest players demands that he starts trying harder on defense. Luka hasn't admitted this publicly, but it's hard to imagine that a player as smart as him believes that he's incapable of turning things up a notch, at the very least as an off-ball team defender.
Will Luka change? We don't know. The outside noise is reaching a distracting volume, even if Cousins can't hear it. But for Doncic to start guarding, it won't be because he cares what people think. It'll be because he wants to compete for a championship again.