Luka Doncic returned from a one-game absence with lower back tightness to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a 124-114 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday, extending their winning streak to six games. Doncic finished with 32 points and 10 assists, and he tied for second on the team with eight rebounds. His run of scoring 40-plus points ended at four games.
“Luka again, you know, [was] just orchestrating,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “I thought he was really just a willing passer. He ended up with 10 assists … but could have had 15, 16 assists.”
Depth steps up without Reaves and Grimes
The Lakers were without Austin Reaves (illness) and Quentin Grimes (sprained finger on his right hand). The pair had combined for 55 points and eight assists in Sunday’s win over the Detroit Pistons, but the rest of the roster filled the gap. Teammates did not convert every pass Doncic delivered, yet the Lakers still produced a comfortable victory.
Sandro Mamukelashvili scored a season-high 23 points off the bench and grabbed eight rebounds. Collin Sexton, tasked with handling the ball more in Reaves’ absence, finished with 18 points and six assists. Lakers centre Walker Kessler recorded his third straight double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds, while Ziaire Williams added 12 points on 5-for-10 shooting from the field.
Defence drives the result
Earlier on Monday, Doncic was named Western Conference player of the week after averaging 45 points with a 4-0 record. Returning to State Farm Arena, the venue where he scored a career-high 73 points against the Hawks on 26 January 2024, the 27-year-old guard drew questions about how much scoring motivates him.
Redick said Doncic’s first priority is simply to win. “To me, he is first a competitor,” Redick said before the game. “You see it in everything he does throughout his daily life and his existence, he just loves competing, and so I think when he gets on a basketball court, that’s — the first priority is to try to win. And he does a great job of figuring out on a night-to-night basis what levers to pull. … It’s not just hunt, hunt, hunt, hunt [to score]. He reads the game.”
After the game, Doncic spoke more about his five steals and two blocks against the Hawks than his scoring. The Lakers, who came into the contest at 10-2, were ranked 21st in the league in defensive efficiency. They held Atlanta, which arrived on a four-game winning streak, to 114 points, a tick below its 118.6-point average, and forced 19 turnovers, well above the Hawks’ average of 14.5 per game.
“I think we can be way better than 21st,” Doncic said. “I think we have the potential for that.”