Luka Doncic’s One-Word Response On ‘Mood’ Entering Game 5

The Lakers have not recovered from a 3-1 playoff series deficit since they beat the Suns in the 1970 divisional semifinals. LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Co. have a chance to make history after going down 3-1 to the Timberwolves through the first four games of their seven-game series.

Entering the must-win Game 5, Doncic was asked about his mood.

“Confident,” Doncic responded.

“Confidence is a big part of it. We have to treat this like a Game 7, and we got to stick together.”

Doncic said he was confident that he and his teammates would band together and treat the game with urgency.

“We’ve got to treat it like a Game 7. You lose, you go home,” he said, reflecting on the stakes. “We can’t be looking at the future; we’ve got to focus on this game.”

Lakers Lost Two Close Games

Although the Lakers find themselves in a 3-1 hole, it’s easy to forget that they blew fourth-quarter leads in back-to-back losses. As such, Doncic believes the Lakers just need to clean up their mistakes in the business end of games and stick to the basics.

“We’ve got to make more shots. It’s easy,” he said of turning the series around. “We got good looks, we just didn’t make them. That [we had a lead in Game 3 and Game 4) gives me confidence for the next game. We’re ready for it. We could have won some games. Little mistakes cost us, but there’s confidence we can win.”

Doncic is averaging a team-high 30.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.0 steals through the first four games of the series. However, his inability to play defense, especially in the fourth quarter, has been a big talking point.

Can Luka Doncic Flip The Script?

Addressing those concerns, Doncic believes he and his teammates have “got to fly around” in guarding the perimeter, ensuring that Timberwolves guards Anthony Edwards, Donte DiVincenzo and Mike Conley are unable to penetrate easily to the rim, like they did specifically in Games 3 and 4.

Doncic enters Game 5 under a lot of pressure. Many analysts and former players blamed his poor conditioning and defense for the Lakers’ loss in Game 4. The Volume’s Jason Timpf felt that Doncic was a defensive liability for the Lakers in the fourth quarter when they blew a double-digit lead.

“My first impression rooting for Luka has been that he pretty consistently runs out of gas at the end of games,” Timpf wrote of Doncic. “It’s no secret, but the next step for him is conditioning. It was wild watching 40 year old LeBron go defensive demon down the stretch while Luka looked lifeless.”

The Ringer’s Zach Lowe called Doncic’s defense “laughably bad” on his podcast.

“Why do you have to get humiliated at the beginning of every single playoff series before you show the world like, ‘Yeah, I can actually put in a little bit more of an effort on defense?'” Lowe said of Doncic.

“I’m just tired of, like, ‘I’m gonna be embarrassed until our backs are against the wall, and then I’m gonna show you that yeah, I can put up a little bit of a fight.’ Now you’re down 3-1, and you’re probably going home.”

According to Second Spectrum data, Doncic has allowed Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels to shoot 61.9% (13-of-21), Edwards 60% (15-of-25) and Naz Reid 62.5% (5-of-8) from the floor through the first four games.