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Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and LeBron James have continued to impress each other since they first teamed up last season.<\/p>\n
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) \u2014 LeBron James was in awe of \u201cLuka magic\u201d after Luka Don\u010di\u0107 had 45 points, 14 assists and 11 rebounds in his fifth triple-double of the season in a 143-135 win over the Utah Jazz on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s Luka. Luka magic! It\u2019s no surprise. He\u2019s just so damn good, it\u2019s ridiculous,\u201d said James, who had 28 points and 10 assists for the Lakers.<\/p>\n
Don\u010di\u0107 had his first 40-point triple-double as a Laker since arriving last season became the second player to have a 45-point triple double with five steals since the NBA began keeping track of steals. Cade Cunningham was first.<\/p>\n
But the statistic that made Don\u010di\u0107 smile the most in the postgame press conference was his single turnover.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne turnover is the best thing on this stat sheet. We have seven turnovers, which is impressive for us, and we won the game,\u201d Doncic said.<\/p>\n
The Lakers led by 12 in the fourth quarter but the Jazz cut it to 134-130 before Don\u010di\u0107 found Jaxson Hayes for his final assist and the cushion the Lakers needed to clinch the win.<\/p>\n
He had a running conversation with a Jazz fan courtside and yelled, \u201cSit down\u201d and \u201cHow are you doing now?\u201d after Hayes threw down emphatic dunk off Doncic\u2019s lob.<\/p>\n
Despite constant traps and doubles from the Jazz, Doncic had 10 points in the fourth as the Lakers outscored the Jazz 41-29.<\/p>\n
For more than two decades, James has been accustomed to being the playmaker and the focus of his team\u2019s offense. Now Don\u010di\u0107 is the point, the trigger of the offensive attack, especially in crunch time.<\/p>\n
The Lakers improved to 10-0 this season in crunch time with Don\u010di\u0107 at the controls.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty awesome to be 10-0 in the clutch, and 12-3 on the road too, which is not easy,\u201d Doncic said.<\/p>\n
Marcus Smart was the recipient of two Don\u010di\u0107 assists for 3-pointers during a fourth-quarter surge as the Jazz tried to double and trap Don\u010di\u0107.<\/p>\n
Many of the Lakers \u2014 including Smart and Don\u010di\u0107 who got technical fouls \u2014 were frustrated with the tightly-called game but Luka\u2019s composure when it mattered most impressed Smart.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was big-time for us. He stayed in there mentally. I know he was very frustrated, but he kept his composure, held it together and did what he does best. He controlled his team and helped us come up with this victory,\u201d Smart said.<\/p>\n
The Lakers were missing Austin Reaves and Deandre Ayton to injury but Don\u010di\u0107 made sure that would not be an excuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are stretches of excellence but there are stretches where he\u2019s not as engaged and isn\u2019t executing our stuff defensive \u2026 but he played certainly well enough to lead us to a win. He and LeBron had 28 assists and three turnovers,\u201d Los Angeles coach JJ Redick said.<\/p>\n
Don\u010di\u0107 agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I could do some more,\u201d Don\u010di\u0107 said, despite his historic night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and LeBron James have continued to impress each other since they first teamed up last season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,153700,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-355061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-lebron-james-luka-doncic","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}