OKLAHOMA CITY — Less than one hour after suffering one of his worst losses since joining the Lakers, Luka Doncic addressed the departure of one of the men responsible for sending him to Los Angeles – reaffirming his focus on his current team and the improvements they’re looking to make after a rough start to their ongoing road trip.
The Dallas Mavericks fired general manager Nico Harrison on Tuesday, just nine months after spearheading the controversial trade of Doncic. Harrison first floated the idea of trading Doncic to the Lakers with general manager Rob Pelinka in early January, with the deal being made official less than a month later.
Doncic, who spent the first 7½ seasons of his NBA career in Dallas, provided his reaction to the Mavericks’ decision after Wednesday’s 121-92 loss to the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center.
“The city of Dallas, the fans, the players, they’ll always have a special place in my heart,” Doncic said. “I thought I was going to stay there forever, but I didn’t. That will always be a special place for me. I will always call it home.
“But right now I’m focused on the Lakers and trying to move on. But just trying to move on and focus on what I’m doing here.”
Doncic signed a three-year, $161 million contract extension with the Lakers in August, which included a player option for 2028-29.
When asked whether he would play for the Mavericks again in light of Harrison’s departure, Doncic responded: “Right now, I’m just focused on the Lakers. No further comments.”
And when it came to the Lakers, Doncic, as well as his teammates and coach, had plenty to say after their worst loss of the season.
Doncic was part of the Lakers’ struggles against the league-best Thunder. He finished with 19 points, seven assists and seven rebounds, shooting 7 for 20 from the field (1 for 7 from 3-point range) and committing four of the team’s 20 turnovers.
“Definitely wasn’t our best game, probably one of the worst this season,” Doncic said. “They all did a great job on me. They’re champions for a reason. They showed that. We need to be more ready. Obviously, it starts with me. I need to be way better than that.”
The Lakers dropped to 8-4 with the loss – the same record they had through 12 games last season – but have a negative point differential after the 29-point loss to the Thunder and Saturday’s 20-point loss to the Atlanta Hawks to kick off the five-game trip.
“You have to look big picture, and then have to look at where your team is at right now,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “And I don’t think it’s been a great road trip for us, just in terms of how we played. Second half [of Monday’s road win over the Charlotte Hornets], I liked everything that I saw. But the Atlanta game [and Wednesday], I don’t think are reflective of who the group is going to be, but it clearly is who the group is right now. So we’ve gotta course correct.”
Where does the course correction start?
“Start playing more desperately,” Lakers guard Marcus Smart said. “That’s it. We’ve been on the road for a little while, and it’s starting to show. We got to continue to stay together and continue to go out there give it everything we got.”
To Doncic, that includes having more physical starts to games – something he hopes will be present when the Lakers play the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday and the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday in a back-to-back set before returning to Los Angeles.
Friday’s game in New Orleans is the Lakers’ second NBA Cup Group Play game. The Lakers opened Group Play by beating the Memphis Grizzlies on Oct. 31, while the Pelicans (2-9) are 0-1 in the tournament.
“We just need to start more [physically],” Doncic said. “When we don’t start physical, it’s tough for us. So we just need to bring the energy and the physicality.”
With 70 games left in the regular season, the Lakers didn’t express concern about how significant the gap between them and the Thunder appeared to be on Wednesday.
“It’s more of a big motivation,” Doncic said. “They were the champions for a reason. It’s a big motivation to see how they play and try to stop them.”
LAKERS AT PELICANS
When: 5 p.m. PT Friday
Where: Smoothie King Center, New Orleans
TV/Radio: Spectrum SportsNet/710 AM