Luka Doncic Sends Clear Message After Lakers’ Impressive Win Over Knicks

The Los Angeles Lakers scored an impressive win over the New York Knicks on Sunday, March 8.

Playing without LeBron James, JJ Redick’s team held the Knicks to under 100 points, handing them their 24th loss of the season in the process.

During his postgame news conference, Luka Doncic detailed why the defensive shutout was so impressive for Los Angeles.

“Pretty awesome win for sure,” Doncic said. “They just beat the Nuggets by 40 at Nuggets. Pretty big win for us. Gives us a lot of confidence…We did a great job, hold a team like New York Knicks under 100 is pretty amazing for us.”

Doncic played a key role in the Lakers’ win. He dropped 35 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals in 38 minutes of playing time. Doncic shot 11-of-25 from the field, including 5-of-16 from deep, going 44% from the field.

The Lakers currently sit fifth in the Western Conference and have won six of their last 10 games, including their last two. The fact that they managed to shut down New York’s offense, despite the presence of both Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, is impressive and proves that when they’re locked in, the Lakers can be a defensive threat.

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Austin Reaves Gives Honest Assessment Of Lakers

During his own postgame news conference, Austin Reaves provided an honest assessment of what helped the Lakers secure such an impressive win.

“We played hard, stuck to the game plan, and competed,” Reaves said. “That’s what it came down to. I think we played harder than them, and we set the tone early and had a really good third quarter…Just playing basketball, playing the right way, continuing to grind through a couple tough games, and just play the right way and have fun.” 

Reaves had a solid outing for the Lakers, ending the night with 25 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and a block. He shot 50% from the floor, going 8-of-16 from the field and 3-of-6 from deep.

Redick has been able to rely on Reaves all season. He’s thrived in both a tertiary and secondary scoring role, while also plugging gaps in the margins. In 38 games, he’s averaging 23.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.4 assists, hitting 49.5% from the field and 37.3% from deep.

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Lakers’ Redick Details How Team Shut Down Knicks

When speaking with the media after the game, head coach JJ Redick explained how his team managed to limit New York, along with how they managed to force Brunson into having a quiet night.

“We mixed up defenses,” Redick said. “You can’t give him the same stuff. Some in coverage, zone, switching…normal flood on baseline vs star players…Outside of broken play 3 & going for shot fake / him drawing fouls, I thought we did a fantastic job on him.”

The Lakers will be back in action on Tuesday, March 10. They will face the 40-24 Minnesota Timberwolves at the Crypto.com Arena. Redick will undoubtedly hope his team can carry over some of its defensive mentality while also finding a better level of efficiency on the offensive side of the floor.

Still, if they can maintain the level of production we saw against the Knicks, they could be in store for an exciting and successful postseason.

Adam Taylor is a basketball reporter covering the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks and Miami Heat for Heavy. He holds bylines for CelticsBlog, USA Today and Yardbarker. Adam also covers the WWE and AEW. He has a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Open University. More about Adam Taylor