{"id":47711,"date":"2025-11-11T05:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T05:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/47711\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T05:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T05:58:09","slug":"luka-doncic-scores-38-to-deliver-lakers-to-win-over-hornets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/47711\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka Doncic scores 38 to deliver Lakers to win over Hornets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CHARLOTTE, N.C.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0For once, Luka Doncic<\/a> had to serve the punishment. For not hitting any half-court shots during his pregame warmup, Doncic had to drop to the court and give his coaching staff push-ups.<\/p>\n

The exercise seemingly powered him up for the two-handed dunk to come.<\/p>\n

Doncic dazzled in the Lakers\u2019 121-111 win<\/a> over the Charlotte Hornets on Monday at Spectrum Center, scoring 38 points with seven assists, six rebounds and one emphatic third-quarter dunk to help the Lakers<\/a> flush the memories of a blowout loss in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fun, not only because he got the dunk,\u201d coach JJ Redick<\/a> said, \u201cbut just him letting out some emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doncic exorcised the demons of a 20-point loss to Atlanta on Saturday in which the Lakers (8-3) led for only 19 seconds and pulled the starters before the third quarter. He spent the majority of that game bickering with officials. He missed six three-pointers and had five turnovers. <\/p>\n

On Monday, Doncic was back to joking with Austin Reaves<\/a> about who had the better deadball three-quarters-court heave after Reaves returned from a three-game absence with 24 points and seven assists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pushing him to get back,\u201d said Doncic, who made a 70-foot shot after the whistle and wanted to make sure Reaves knew it was longer than his 50-footer. \u201cI needed him back. … He\u2019s an amazing player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reaves, who was out because of a right groin strain, said he wanted to play against Atlanta but was held out for precautionary reasons. He played one minute and 25 seconds over his supposed 28-minute restriction Monday. Everything felt great, he said, except his jump shot. <\/p>\n

When Doncic assisted him on a three-pointer with 8:01 remaining in the fourth, Reaves put his arms up and threw his head back in relief. He had missed his first seven three-point attempts and finished two for 10 from three-point range.<\/p>\n

With Reaves\u2019 return, the Lakers are one player closer to a healthy roster. LeBron James<\/a> is scheduled to practice with the South Bay Lakers this week as he progresses through right sciatica.<\/p>\n

Rookie Adou Thiero (left knee surgery recovery) also is close to returning. Redick estimated the forward could make his NBA debut during the trip, which has three games remaining, starting Wednesday at Oklahoma City. The defending NBA champions are 10-1. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the No. 1 team right now,\u201d forward Rui Hachimura<\/a> said. \u201cSo we got to be ready for the war on Wednesday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hachimura scored 21 points Monday with perfect three-for-three shooting from three-point range. In addition to seven steals from Marcus Smart, Hachimura quietly starred on defense, helping the Lakers hold the Hornets to 38 combined points in the second and third quarters. <\/p>\n

Reaves announced his presence by throwing a lob to Deandre Ayton<\/a> for the Lakers\u2019 first basket. After Charlotte (3-7) blitzed the Lakers with eight three-pointers in the first quarter to take a 40-36 lead, Reaves answered by scoring seven of the Lakers\u2019 first 10 points in the second. He gave the team a jolt of energy by racing for a transition layup to beat the halftime buzzer, giving the Lakers a two-point lead.<\/p>\n

\"Lakers <\/p>\n

Lakers guard Austin Reaves shoots over Charlotte Hornets forward Miles Bridges during the first half Monday.<\/p>\n

(Chris Carlson \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an All-Star-level player,\u201d Redick said before the game. \u201cHe\u2019s, along with Luka, an incredibly dynamic offensive player. I think our depth increases, the lineup optionality increases, so not having him in the lineup really, really hurts us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lakers went 2-1 in games without Reaves, but the blowout in Atlanta was so striking that Redick was left questioning the identity of his team. Redick waved the white flag by the middle of the third quarter after the starting unit let the deficit balloon to 25.<\/p>\n

With Doncic and Reaves back, the Lakers wouldn\u2019t repeat their third-quarter woes.<\/p>\n

The Lakers started the second half with an 11-4 run that forced the Hornets to call a timeout. Reaves then assisted on a three-pointer from Hachimura that pushed the lead into double digits. Doncic hit a step-back three to put the Lakers up by 12. Doncic\u2019s assist to Hachimura extended the lead to 17.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

A driving, two-handed dunk was the exclamation point, stunning the Charlotte crowd as Doncic hung on the rim and screamed for a three-point play. Doncic can dunk, he insisted after the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t want to all the time,\u201d he added with a slight grin.<\/p>\n

With two dunks this season \u2014 including a barely-there slam at home against Minnesota that his teammates don\u2019t officially count \u2014 he already doubled his total from last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinally,\u201d Smart said. \u201cThe way he be getting by [defenders], he\u2019s always acting. Might as well go and dunk it one time. I guess you gotta piss him off for that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE, N.C.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0For once, Luka Doncic had to serve the punishment. For not hitting any half-court shots during his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[6223,4464,7550,10352,48,52,51,10356,1415,479,47,50,49,7551,10355,3906,10353,6811,1414,10354,9084],"class_list":["post-47711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-end","tag-floor","tag-gabe-vincent","tag-hectic-offseason","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-laker","tag-lakers","tag-little-bit","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-luka-doncic","tag-maxi-kleber","tag-month","tag-national-team","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-redick","tag-third-day","tag-training-camp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47711","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=47711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}