Los Angeles Lakers star guard Luka Doncic faced a lot of criticism after his team suffered a 116-113 loss to the Timberwolves in Game 4 on April 27. The loss meant that the Lakers found themselves down 3-1 in the best-of-seven series.
A lot of Doncic’s criticism stemmed from his poor defense. In the fourth quarter of the Game 4 loss, Doncic was routinely hunted by Timberwolves guards Donte DiVincenzo and Anthony Edwards, who hunted the Slovenian in pick-and-roll situations. Furthermore, Doncic shot 1-of-6 from the floor in the final period.
Luka Doncic Struggles on Defense
“I’m just tired of, like, ‘I’m gonna be embarrassed until our backs are against the wall, and then I’m gonna show you that yeah, I can put up a little bit of a fight.’ Now you’re down 3-1, and you’re probably going home,” Lowe added in reference to Doncic.
The Volume’s Jason Timpf was similarly harsh, arguing that Anthony Edwards had dominated Doncic and LeBron James in the battle of superstars, thanks mainly to Doncic being a defensive liability.
“My first impression rooting for Luka has been that he pretty consistently runs out of gas at the end of games,” Timpf wrote of Doncic. “It’s no secret, but the next step for him is conditioning. It was wild watching 40 year old LeBron go defensive demon down the stretch while Luka looked lifeless.”
Can Doncic Improve His Conditioning?
Many other analysts blamed Doncic’s poor conditioning for his inability to play defense, especially in the business end of playoff games. Doncic was similarly criticized during his tenure with the Mavericks. In fact, Mavericks GM Nico Harrison said he traded Doncic due to his belief in the age-old mantra that “defense wins championships.”
“When you look at this trade, we targeted A.D. [Anthony Davis] with our philosophy of defense wins championships,” Harrison said, via The Athletic. “We wanted a two-way player to lead our team, and that was Anthony Davis. Everybody’s going to have their critics. … But we got what we wanted.”
Meanwhile, The Athletic’s Jovan Buha, who covers the Lakers, feels that questions about Doncic’s fitness levels will be answered during the 2025 offseason.
“I think he probably needs more of an offseason just to get his body right coming off the calf injury and maybe not being in his typical or best shape this season,” Buha said on his podcast. “For now, I would say it’s a slight concern. But longer term, we have to see how he bounces back this offseason.”
Doncic previously scoffed at allegations about his poor conditioning and fitness levels.
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