Just before halftime, Doncic exited with a back injury following a hard foul. He was able to return for the second half, though he was clearly moving gingerly at times. However, back pain wasn’t going to slow down Luka. He led both teams in scoring, with almost half of his points coming at the free throw line. That wasn’t enough to win, which brings his first season with the Lakers to a close. With a full offseason to get used to his new team, and roster moves to build this team around him, expect Doncic to be back to his typical dominant self next season.

Doncic only sat for two minutes on Sunday, playing the entire second half as the Lakers hoped to avoid falling into a 3-1 hole. The final stat line was surprisingly meager outside of the points and three-pointers, but there were some potential assists that Doncic missed out on due to the limited production from some of his teammates. He’ll look to rebound and keep the Lakers’ season alive when they host Game 5 on Wednesday.

Doncic battled a stomach bug, but still played 40 minutes given the high stakes of the playoffs. He remained in the locker room at the beginning of the third quarter with Gabe Vincent starting the second half, though Doncic quickly returned to the game. He was hardly efficient scoring Friday with 17 points on 16 shots and just two made three-pointers. Doncic will likely get over his stomach issue in the next 24 hours and look to bounce back in Game 4 Sunday.

After the Lakers dropped Game 1, Luka made sure they wouldn’t head out on the road for Game 3 down 0-2. He scored 22 points in the first half alone, and while he wasn’t able to replicate that dominance after the break, he was still able to do enough to even the series. Doncic fell one assist shy of a triple-double, which would have been the 11th playoff triple-double of his career. This was also Luka’s first postseason win with Los Angeles, and he’ll look to add another in Game 3 on Friday to help the Lakers take back homecourt advantage.