The Los Angeles Lakers pulled off an 108–106 road victory over the Utah Jazz on Sunday despite yet another cold shooting night. After the game, Luka Doncic was asked if his 12-4 Lakers have been able to eke out wins due to their togetherness and chemistry, despite being one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA.
Doncic nodded in approval before sending a five-word note on behalf of his teammates.
“We have each other’s backs,” Doncic said of the Lakers’ offensive struggles.
“Everybody has each other’s back,” he continued. “Great teams gotta find a way to win. And today was, by far, not our best game, and we still found a way to win.”
To Doncic’s point, the Lakers shot 10-of-38 from three (26%) and had a subpar assist-to-turnover ratio of 17.2 (23 assists, 17 turnovers) in their ugly win in Utah.
‘We’ll Be Tough to Guard’
The Lakers’ poor shooting has been a trend all season, with JJ Redick’s team ranking 26th in the league in 3P% and making only 33.3% of their threes through 16 games.
Doncic believes it’s a scary proposition for the league that the Lakers are 12-4 despite those issues, and will be “hard to beat” once they overcome their offensive challenges.
“I’m not worried at all,” he said. “We don’t play well and still find ways to win. That’s what great teams do. Obviously, me and AR [Austin Reaves] haven’t hit a shot this season [laughs]. So, I’m not worried at all.
“Once we start making our shots, we’ll be tough to guard.”
As Doncic noted, he and Reaves have shot very poorly from distance all season. While Doncic has shot 31.3% from three, Reaves has made 31.3% of his tries from deep.
Lakers’ Shooting Woes
LeBron James, who has shot 28.6% from three through his first two games, is not worried, either.
“We’re not worried about it. We got too many good shooters. It won’t last,” James said of the team’s shooting struggles.
Their head coach doesn’t exactly share Doncic and James’ optimism. After Sunday’s game, Redick asked his teammates to break out of their shooting slump — and soon.
“I told the guys this after the game: We’re literally one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA right now,” he said after Sunday’s win. “I don’t think that’s who we are. We’ve gotta make shots, and we’ve gotta shoot ’em with confidence.
“To me, if we’re guarding at that level of physicality and passing so well — we had 23 assists but could have had 30 if we made shots. We’ve got to shoot the ball better, but there’s gotta be a belief in each other to knock down shots.”
The Lakers (12-4) will look to extend their four-game winning streak when they host the LA Clippers (5-12) on Tuesday night.
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