Luka Dončić against the Minnesota Timberwolves felt like one of the safer bets in the entire playoff field. He played them a year ago. It didn’t end well for Minnesota.
The Dallas Mavericks sent them home in five games. Dončić averaged 32.4 points in that series. He subjected Rudy Gobert to another year of taunts when he drew the switch on the final possession of Game 2 and cooked the Defensive Player of the Year for a game-winning 3-pointer. Dončić kept Minnesota out of the NBA Finals a year ago. Surely he’d torch the Timberwolves again, right?
Well … yes and no. Dončić did score 37 points in Saturday’s Game 1, but his new team, the Los Angeles Lakers, lost in a 117-95 blowout. If you’re looking for an immediate explanation of why, consider two of the most important teammates Dončić had last postseason: Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford. Dončić dished out 41 assists in last year’s Western Conference finals, and more than half of them (22) went to his two centers. Of those 22, 10 came on a single pass type, a lob, which is arguably the best pass in Dončić’s arsenal.
Now think of the roster Dončić currently plays for. The only center to consistently play is Jaxson Hayes, who isn’t nearly as good as Gafford or Lively in basically any respect. He played eight minutes in Game 1. The Lakers lost those minutes by 11 points. They played the rest of the game without a center. Dončić dished out only a single assist. It was just the second time in his career he’d been held to one dime in a playoff game.
Suddenly, what happened on Saturday makes a bit more sense. At the trade deadline, the Lakers very nearly acquired a new starting center in Charlotte Hornets big man Mark Williams. They nixed the deal over his physical. Only time will tell if that was the right decision in the grand scheme of things. We don’t know how healthy Williams will be in five years. We don’t know what center the Lakers will add this offseason. There are just too many variables here to make any long-term declaration. In the short-term, though,…
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