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Marcus Sensible couldn’t consider the stat line. 5 steals and two blocks for who?
“Lukaaaaa,” Sensible stated, elongating Luka Doncic’s title whereas smiling towards his star teammate who was sitting together with his toes in an ice bucket with ice baggage wrapped round his knees.
Doncic matched his profession excessive for steals in a regular-season recreation Wednesday. The guard averaging 40 factors per recreation claimed his protection was the one factor he did nicely on an evening when he completed one rebound wanting a triple-double. Whereas amassing 35 factors, 12 assists and 9 rebounds, he was an inefficient nine-for-27 from the sphere and four-for-11 from three. He missed 4 free throws, turned the ball over 4 instances and, after selecting up his fifth foul with 7:58 remaining within the fourth, almost fouled out.
The final truth took Rui Hachimura without warning.
“I’ve never seen him like that,” Hachimura stated. “But you know, he’s trying to be more aggressive [on defense] and that’s what we need from him, too.”
Redick stated Doncic had a couple of video games when he began gradual defensively when it comes to physicality and engagement, however has been total “really good” this season. Even when he was switched on to Spurs star Victor Wembanyama or level guard Stephon Citadel, Doncic nonetheless competed nicely.
“There wasn’t matador defense,” Redick stated. “He still guarded. And that was huge. The reason we won the game is because we guarded in the fourth quarter. Our fourth-quarter defense was the No. 1 reason we won the game.”
The Lakers restricted the Spurs to 36.8% taking pictures from the sphere throughout the fourth quarter whereas forcing six turnovers. Wembanyama was held to 19 factors on labored five-for-14 taking pictures with eight rebounds. He was nine-for-11 on free throws and fouled out with 1:40 remaining when he shocked Hachimura.
