The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Indiana Pacers on a buzzer-beating tip-in from LeBron James on Wednesday night. James was in position to get the clutch bucket because the Pacers were focused on Luka Doncic’s attempted game-winner.
And it all started with a Doncic rebound on the other end of the court. As you could hear in the call of the game by ESPN’s Mark Jones, LeBron had leaked out after the rebound, but Luka did not throw a long pass to him. After the game Luka made a surprising admission about not throwing that pass.
I mean first of all when I got the rebound he was down the court. he was asking for the ball, but I wasn’t confident enough to make that pass,” said Doncic. “Nine seconds to go. So I then pass to AR who passed to LeBron and it just show how much confidence he has in me and I really appreciate that to give me that final ball. You know, I think we got a great look. Didn’t make it but LeBron was there, luckily.
So Luka did see LeBron, but wasn’t confident to throw the pass in that situation. Considering how many long outlet passes he’s thrown to LeBron so far in his Lakers career, that’s kind of surprising, but shows that game situation does actually play a part in his decision making. As cool as that long pass could have been, he thought better of it and in the end the Lakers were rewarded for that split-second decision
