There was a pretty good reason for Lakers star Luka Doncic to miss back-to-back games in the team’s three-game East Coast road trip last week. He was in Slovenia, witnessing the birth of his second child, a daughter named Olivia with his fiancee Anamaria Goltes. Doncic and Goltes’s first daughter, Gabriela, was born two years ago this month.
Doncic missed the Lakers’ three-point win in Toronto and their blowout loss in Boston, but was back on the floor on Sunday for the win over the Sixers. It was not his most efficient performance–he was 9-for-24 shooting–but he certainly brought some of his new-dad energy, going for 31 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists for an impressive triple-double.
“I mean it’s just the best thing in the world,” Doncic told reporters. “Obviously two girls, they’re going to make my life hell for sure. I know that. I’m going to be their security after I retire.
“All jokes aside, it’s the best thing in the world. I’m just blessed.”
Luka Doncic Averaging 35.0 Points
Doncic was understandably haggard after the game, and it was something that Lakers coach JJ Redick, himself a father of two sons, could understand. He has two young kids himself, sons Kai and Knox.
Doncic is averaging a league-high 35.0 points this year, with 9.2 rebounds and 9.1 assists. He is currently No. 3 in NBA MVP odds, behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic.
“[I] somehow came to the gym every day with more energy than I thought was possible despite sleeping in two-hour segments for five or six hours,” Redick said in his pregame press conference on Sunday. “So hopefully it would be [the same] with Luka.”
Lakers Have Home-Heavy Schedule Ahead
The Lakers will return to action back home at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday against the Spurs, in what will be the team’s first home game in nine days. The last time they were at home, they were blitzed by the Suns, 125-108, though Doncic had 38 points on 15-for-26 shooting, plus 11 rebounds, in that one.
The game against the Spurs starts a stretch of six home games in nine outings, with only a small sort-of road trip to Utah, back to L.A. to play the Clippers, and then to Phoenix starting next week. That should provide a good opportunity for the Lakers, who are 17-6 and tied with the Nuggets for No. 2n in the Western Conference, a chance to build up some wins going into the midpoint of the season.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Lakers’ Luka Doncic Opens Up on Big Life Change appeared first on Heavy Sports.