Ex-NBA Champion Takes Aim at Luka Doncic After Lakers’ Loss vs Rockets originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Los Angeles Lakers’ losing streak continued with an NBA Christmas Day slate loss against the Houston Rockets.
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With an opportunity to prove they are one of the top contenders in the Western Conference on the primetime stage, the Lakers fell flat. Shortly after the game wrapped up, the outspoken former NBA veteran Kendrick Perkins offered the Lakers a piece of his mind.
“Again, the Rockets exposed what we already knew that the Lakers are horrible defensively and it starts with Luka,” Perkins wrote on social media.
“He gave no effort defensively tonight and went back to his old ways of complaining to the officials all damn game.”
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Doncic checked in for 34 minutes of action on Thursday night. He went 9-17 from the field and attempted seven shots from the charity stripe. Doncic scored a game-high of 25 points, while coming down with five rebounds, and producing seven assists.
He also turned the ball over six times, more than any other player involved, and finished the game as a minus-25.
The Lakers were blown out with a score of 119-96. With that loss, they dropped to three straight defeats. Now, the Lakers are 19-10 on the year, slipping to fifth in the Western Conference standings. The victory for Houston allowed the Rockets to pull within half a game of the Lakers.
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Doncic and the Lakers aren’t in panic mode, but it’s clear that the coaching staff is growing frustrated with the team’s lack of execution, especially on the defensive end. It’s something that JJ Redick shined a light on earlier this week after the Lakers lost to the Phoenix Suns.
On Thursday night, Redick surely didn’t hold back. After Doncic and the Lakers get a day off on Friday, they’ll be back on the practice court for what Redick describes as an “uncomfortable” practice and film session. The Lakers will get a chance to bounce back against the struggling Sacramento Kings on Sunday.
Between the public pressure from analysts such as Perkins—and the brutally honest assessment from Redick—Doncic and the Lakers have a lot riding on them over the next couple of days. A comfortable win over the Kings could help them get back on the right track. Soon, the hoops world will see how the Lakers respond.