With a little more than a minute to go in the first half of the Lakers’ fateful loss to the Timberwolves on Wednesday night, Luka Doncic tried to drive to the rim, but was brought down on a hard foul by Minnesota’s Donte DiVincenzo.
Doncic landed awkwardly and stayed on the floor for a bit before getting up and making both of his free throws. For the game, Doncic wound up with 28 points on 7-for-18 shooting from the field, along with nine assists and seven rebounds.
Still that was not enough to help the Lakers overcome their enormous rebounding deficiency (54-37), which paved the way to the Wolves’ 103-96 win.
After the game, the first question Doncic got from reporters was about his back injury.
“It’s not good. But I tried to go. So, that’s it,” he said.
Doncic scored 16 points in the second half.
Fans, though, were not impressed with the fact that Doncic pointed to his back injury after the loss.
“I see he learned from Lebron to have the backup “injury” to use as an excuse when he gets knocked out of the playoffs,” one commenter wrote.
Wrote another: “He choked away the game…they needed healthy players on the court.”
And another noted: “Dropped 28 including step back 3’s. He was fine but ofc needs to have this excuse ready to avoid accountability.”
In defense of Doncic, he did not say that it was the linjury that cost the Lakers the game. In fact, asked about his feelings after the game, he said, “Obviously sadness. I think as a team we didn’t play the way we should, I think as a team we didn’t play the way we could. But I think, congratulations to Minnesota, they played a hell of a series. They were the better team, honestly.”