![\"Lakers,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2268204301-e1774789760373.jpg\")
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Lakers guard Luka Doncic, #77, winks and points to a player after a play in the second half against the Brooklyn Nets at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles Friday, March 27, 2026. <\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Lakers have the eighth-shortest odds to win the NBA championship, but Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki views the Luka Doncic-led team as a legitimate threat to unseat the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Saturday\u2019s \u201cNBA on Prime\u201d<\/a> telecast, the 2007 NBA MVP explained why the Lakers \u2014 who\u2019ve won 14 of their last 16 games \u2014 will be a tough team to scheme against in the playoffs due to their Big 3 of Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Big 3 is healthy, really, for the first time. I think they\u2019re sort of kind of finding their roles,\u201d said the 2011 NBA Finals MVP.<\/p>\n \u201cLeBron [James] has been doing a great job, kind of stepping back, letting the younger two kind of carry the offense\u2026 And he lets Austin [Reaves] and Luka do their thing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I\u2019ve been impressed,\u201d added Nowitzki.<\/p>\n Lakers Peaking at Right Time?<\/p>\n Nowitzki also praised Lakers head coach JJ Redick\u2019s ability to take \u201csubpar defenders\u201d and turn the team into a decent defensive unit \u2014 the Lakers rank ninth in defensive rating (112.1)<\/a> since the start of March.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re mixing up the zone, matching up out of it. They\u2019re decent on the man-to-man. Deandre [Ayton] has been better,\u201d he said of the Lakers\u2019 defensive schemes.<\/p>\n \u201cOverall, I think that they\u2019re doing really well,\u201d Nowitzki said of the Lakers.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd is that a team you really want to see in the playoffs with three guys that can decide the game and take over down the stretch? So, been impressed with them, and we\u2019ll see how far they can take it.\u201d<\/p>\n Dirk breaks down what he\u2019s seeing from the Lakers \ud83d\udd25<\/p>\n \u201c(The Lakers are) a team you really want to see in the playoffs with three guys that can decide the game\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n Luka Doncic: \u2018Unguradable\u2019<\/p>\n The Dallas Mavericks<\/a> legend reserved special praise for his former teammate Luka Doncic, calling the Slovenian \u201cunguardable\u201d on account of his recent scoring run.<\/p>\n \u201cLuka [Doncic] has been playing incredible basketball,\u201d Nowitzki said.<\/p>\n \u201cOn fire for weeks now, averaging almost 40 a night.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got his stepback working, and when the stepback works, watch out all the teams, because then he\u2019s basically unguardable.\u201d<\/p>\n Further to Nowitzki\u2019s point, Doncic\u2019s three-point shot has been falling at a more efficient clip recently, with the Slovenian shooting 39% from three over his last 15 games, a considerable uptick from his pre-All-Star break clip of 34.5%.<\/p>\n Doncic will sit out Monday\u2019s game against the Washington Wizards<\/a> with a suspension after picking up his 16th technical foul last Friday. Fortunately for the Lakers, they should face little trouble maintaining their winning ways against the lottery-bound Wizards. The Slovenian is expected to return for Tuesday\u2019s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>, after which the Lakers travel to OKC to face the reigning NBA champions.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSai Mohan<\/a> covers the NBA for Heavy.com. Based in Portugal, Sai is a seasoned sports writer with nearly two decades of publishing experience, including bylines at Yardbarker, FanSided’s Hoops Habit, International Business Times, Hindustan Times and more. More about Sai Mohan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Lakers guard Luka Doncic, #77, winks and points to a player after a play in the second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-568767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568767","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=568767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}