Lakers' Luka Doncic nearly takes out fan after kicking ball into stands
03/24/2025 09:49 PM
The Los Angeles Lakers haven’t been at their best over the past few games, and on Monday night, they were on the receiving end of another double-digit loss, this time suffering a 118-106 loss at the hands of an Orlando Magic team that hasn’t won at home in over a month. Their defense was mostly to blame for this defeat, as they conceded a ton of lazy switches and the Magic exploited mismatches which led to plenty of easy buckets in the second half.
Prior to the start of the second half, there may have been a portent of what was to come for the Lakers. Following the halftime intermission, Luka Doncic kicked a basketball softly towards the stands. While there was no malicious intent behind this act from Doncic, especially when he’s a big football/soccer fan, it looked as though he nearly hit a fan in the process judging from how he reacted.
Luka Doncic kicked the ball in the stands and it almost hit a fan just as Lakers-Magic was about to kick off the 2nd half pic.twitter.com/t3yMdnirM9
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) March 25, 2025
This was simply emblematic of how nothing seemed to go right for the Lakers in the second half of their 12-point loss against the Magic. Their defense, which has been excellent over the course of the past few months, is being exposed over the past few games, as their lack of size in the paint is making it very difficult for them to contain the opposition, leading to a barrage of open triples.
It wasn’t as if Doncic had a bad game on the offensive end; he finished with 32 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists, although it did come at some suboptimal shooting efficiency from the field (9-23).
Lakers are hanging on to a top-four seed out West
The Lakers have now lost three games in a row, all to Eastern Conference opposition, and their standing out West remains on shaky ground. They only have a three-game cushion for an outright playoff spot (top-six), and they have the Memphis Grizzlies, Golden State Warriors, and Los Angeles Clippers breathing down their necks.
The silver lining is that the Grizzlies and Warriors are going through their fair share of injury problems (Ja Morant and Stephen Curry are currently on the mend) while the team above the Lakers in the standings, the Denver Nuggets, have now been without Nikola Jokic over the past five games.
The Lakers should simply get back to their recipe for success, and that is to lock down on the defensive end. But that is easier said than done, especially as they visit the streaking Indiana Pacers on Wednesday on the first night of a back-to-back set.
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