Luka Doncic Calls His Performance 'Unacceptable' After Lakers' Loss to Curry, Warriors

Luka Dončić picked an inopportune time to have one of his worst games as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers in their 123-116 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night.

Speaking to reporters following the game, Dončić called his performance "unacceptable" after he was held to 19 points on 6-of-17 shooting.

"When I play like that, that makes [it] harder [for the team] to win, so just got to figure that out," he added.

Dončić entered the game dealing with issues in his left elbow. He kept falling on the arm and elbow in Monday's win over the Houston Rockets, leading to it being heavily wrapped during his postgame press conference.

On Thursday night, the 26-year-old said the elbow is "fine" before joking that it "looked like" he was shooting with his left arm because of how bad things went.

The 19 points were tied for Dončić's fewest in a game since February 22. He also went 0-of-6 from behind the arc, marking his first game without making a three-pointer since April 7, 2023.

Golden State was also more than happy to exploit his limitations on defense. The Warriors were frequently getting him switched onto Stephen Curry, who finished with a game-high 37 points.

The loss dropped the Lakers (46-30) to fourth in the Western Conference standings, but there's only 2.5 games between the six teams battling for spots three through eight.

Golden State moved up to the No. 5 seed amid its current four-game winning streak. The Warriors trail the Lakers by one game for home-court advantage in a potential first-round playoff matchup between the two teams.

Dončić and the Lakers will look to rebound in the second night of a back-to-back against the New Orleans Pelicans at Crypto.com Arena on Friday. They will then travel to Oklahoma City for consecutive games against the Thunder on April 6 and 8.