{"id":133064,"date":"2026-01-14T10:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/133064\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T10:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:19:08","slug":"luka-doncic-plays-and-scores-27-points-as-the-lakers-rout-the-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/133064\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka Doncic plays and scores 27 points as the Lakers rout the Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Luka Doncic and LeBron James were listed as questionable for the Lakers\u2019 back-to-back game Tuesday night against the Atlanta Hawks. Doncic because of left groin soreness<\/a>, James because of left foot joint arthritis and right sciatica. <\/p>\n

Also, checking the stat sheet before the game, the Lakers<\/a> were listed as one of the worst three-point shooting teams and one of the worst defensive shooting percentage teams in the league.<\/p>\n

Well, Luka played and LeBron played and the Lakers shot lights-out from three-point range and were solid across the board on defense while building a 32-point lead in the third quarter and rolling over the Hawks 141-116<\/a> at Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t expect him (James) to be able to play. I mean, that\u2019s just the nature of a 41-year-old body who plays heavy minutes. And he just said, \u201cI\u2019m going to try. I\u2019m going to try to do everything I can, do my normal routine if I\u2019m able to go.\u2019 And same thing with Luka,\u201d Lakers coach JJ Redick said. \u201cSo, both those guys I thought just completely led the group tonight and it was evident 22 assists between them. Obviously they made some shots too, but I just thought they did a great job of leading the group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doncic felt soreness in his groin when the Lakers played at Sacramento on Monday night and was unsure about playing Tuesday. But he played and delivered 27 points, 12 assists and five rebounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I want to play,\u201d Doncic said. \u201cSo, obviously I wasn\u2019t feeling 100%, but in my head, I always want to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

After playing 33 minutes and 17 seconds, Doncic was asked how he was feeling physically.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit worse than yesterday,\u201d he said. But I\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

James didn\u2019t play in the second game of a back-to-back game last week at New Orleans and San Antonio and said he will be listed as TBD, to be determined, in such scenarios. But James played against the Hawks and nearly produced a triple-double with 31 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds.<\/p>\n

James described what went into his day that led him to playing in his first back-to-back game of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWoke up, got in the cold tub. I got in the cold tub in the hyperbaric chamber,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter the hyperbaric chamber, I took a nap, then I played PGA EA golf for a little bit, as I [wore compression boots] for 45 minutes, and I took a shower, got dressed and headed here. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd once I got here, I did my normal game day routine \u2014 activation, treatment, rehabbing, stretching, lifting, mentally, doing everything while I watched TPG on the TV.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then me and (my trainer) Mike (Mancias) looked at each other, and he looked at me, asking me, \u2018What you thinking? I said , \u2018I think I feel pretty good.\u2019 And then there\u2019s a pregame meal in between there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming into the game, opponents were shooting 48.8% from the field and 37.4% from three against the Lakers, ranking them 28th and 26th, respectively, in the NBA.<\/p>\n

The Hawks began the game ranked fourth in three-point shooting, making 37.4%, and they were ranked eighth in field-goal percentage, making 43.6%.<\/p>\n

All of the above made for a bad recipe for the Lakers entering the game.<\/p>\n

But when the game started, none of that mattered to the Lakers, who held the Hawks to 45% shooting and 28.3% from three-point range.<\/p>\n

The Lakers shot 55.9% (19 for 34) from three-point range.<\/p>\n

The Lakers\u2019 big lead was sliced to 11 points in the fourth.<\/p>\n

But back-to-back three-pointers by James and Marcus Smart, both off passes from Doncic, and a Doncic basket gave them a 19-point lead, and they never looked back.<\/p>\n

The Lakers scored 81 points in the first half, a season-high for points in a half, a half in which they opened a 23-point lead and had the Hawks reeling from the beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shared the ball great,\u201d Doncic said. \u201cWe knocked down shots, so it was very fun out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rui Hachimura had missed the previous seven games with a right calf strain but was back in action against the Hawks. He had seven points and two rebounds in 18 minutes.<\/p>\n

ETC: The Lakers signed guard Kobe Bufkin to a 10-day contract Tuesday. The 6-foot-5 Bufkin played in seven games for the South Bay Lakers, the Lakers\u2019 G League team, where he averaged 28.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.0 assists over seven games. He has appeared in 27 career NBA games over two seasons with the Hawks. \u201cYou know, during the stretch, we\u2019ll have opportunities during this 10-day,\u201d Lakers coach JJ Redick said…. Backup center Jaxson Hayes didn\u2019t play against the Hawks because of left hamstring soreness. Redick said Hayes got some \u201cimaging\u201d Tuesday on his injury and that the Lakers will have \u201cmore information\u201d going forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luka Doncic and LeBron James were listed as questionable for the Lakers\u2019 back-to-back game Tuesday night against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[6265,18123,11153,423,68100,31247,48,52,51,1415,13505,47,50,49,7551,1417,7556,68099,43356,7553,68],"class_list":["post-133064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-assist","tag-doncic","tag-first-half","tag-game","tag-groin-soreness","tag-hawks","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lakers","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-luka-doncic","tag-point","tag-rebound","tag-soreness","tag-three-point-range","tag-three-pointer","tag-tuesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}