Luka Doncic’s Underrated Superpower Making Giant Difference For Lakers

Luka Dončić’s scoring is dominating headlines. 

But a huge reason the Lakers are soaring right now is his passing. 

He had 13 assists in Monday’s 138-117 win over the Heat as the team finished with 39 assists, the most they’ve had in any game since Lakers coach JJ Redick took over the helm in June 2024. 

When the ball is moving like that, the Lakers are very difficult to defend. 

Doncic’s passing is an underrated part of his game, overshadowed by his glitzier scoring deluges that drop jaws. But his passing is just as important. It’s what makes his teams dangerous. 

He reads defenses in a fraction of a second as though he were doing advanced calculus through throngs of hands trying to obscure his vision. 

In many ways, that’s his real super power. 

“He can make plays, every play in the book that you need to make as a point-of-attack guy,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the Lakers’ 138-117 win on Monday. 

“You have to pick him up 30 feet. He can make every pass in the book. He can read your defense. He understands what we’re trying to do, positions guys in the right spots and he makes the right play over and over and over. That’s what the greats do.”

With Doncic regularly drawing double- and triple-teams, Redick has made decisiveness a major point of emphasis for the Lakers this season. 

“It’s the thing we talked about before the game: just shoot, drive, kick it,” Redick said. “Just a lot of 0.5-[second] decision making.”

The Lakers executed against the Heat, making a defense laden with superstars such as Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo look discombobulated and hapless as they scrambled to slow down Doncic while also stopping leaks.

Sure, Doncic scored an eye-popping 42 points, his fourth 40-point performance in his last five games.

But what really made the Lakers unstoppable?

As a team, they shot 57.3% from the field and 44.2% from beyond the arc. From top to bottom, everyone was starring in their roles.

The Heat’s blitzes on Doncic led to him dishing the ball out to Sandro Mamukelashvili and Quentin Grimes for wide open 3s. 

Walker Kessler also capitalized on those moments, finishing with his third straight double-double in a 15-point and 15-rebound performance against the Heat. 

Antetokounmpo called Doncic “one of the best scorers to ever play this game,” but added what Doncic is doing behind the scenes is truly what’s making the Lakers elite.

“You can see the message, after every double team he was telling them, like, ‘Hey, be aggressive, get downhill,'” Antetokounmpo said. “That fills players up with confidence. You see Sando was aggressive, Kessler was aggressive, Thybulle was aggressive, Grimes  — all of them.”

Doncic is leading the league in scoring with 38.3 points per game, but he’s also third in assists (8.1). 

When Doncic is taking advantage of the attention he draws and his teammates are starring in their roles, the Lakers are hard to beat. They currently have the best offensive rating in the league (121.9). 

For a Lakers team with nine new players, including Kessler, it has been a learning process. Let’s not forget the Lakers blowing a 25-point lead against the Warriors on Oct. 30 when Golden State dialed up its defensive pressure. 

Playing with a guy like Doncic requires unique skills. 

His teammates must always be ready. They have to react instantaneously. They have to be fearless. 

Doncic will make the right reads. 

And if his teammates make the right reactions, defenses are stunted. 

“I think at the beginning of the season, we didn’t execute well on double teams,” Doncic said. “But I just thought [Monday], I think we improved a lot. Everybody was in the right spots. So it’s not just me, I think it’s everybody, just being in the right spot, being aggressive and shooting with confidence.”

Eight games into the season, it appears guys are adjusting well to Luka Magic.  

That makes the Lakers one of the most dangerous teams in the league.