Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick shed light on the illness that affected his star player Luka Doncic on Friday night.
Doncic had one of the worst playoff games of his career in Game 3 of the Lakers’ first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Slovenian tallied just 17 points on 6/16 shooting and committed a game-high 5 turnovers.
With Doncic looking mortal, the Timberwolves won 116-104 to take a 2-1 series lead over the Lakers.
Redick gave reporters some details about Doncic’s illness during his postgame press conference.
“[Luka Doncic] hasn’t been feeling well for the last 24 hours,” Redick said. “I don’t know how much he slept last night. He didn’t feel well last night. His stomach was bothering him. He was vomiting all afternoon. … He’s really under the weather.”
Doncic entered Friday’s game averaging 31.0 points in the playoffs through 52 career games, the second-highest mark in NBA history behind only Michael Jordan. It was evident from Friday’s opening tip that Luka did not look like his usual self. Doncic’s 17-point outing was the second-lowest scoring total of his playoff career.
The Lakers star’s performance Friday was the complete opposite of his stellar outing in Game 2. In that outing, Doncic helped tie the series 1-1 after dropping 31 points, 12 rebounds, and 9 assists.
With less than 48 hours separating Games 3 and 4, Lakers fans can only hope Doncic gets healthy in a hurry.
