Luka Doncic’s 45-point triple-double topples Jazz

Man, it must be nice to have Luka Doncic. And to have gotten him without even really trying. Every team wishes they could do that.

Speaking of not trying...

The Utah Jazz gave up on just enough plays Thursday night to help boost Doncic’s 45-point, 14-assist, 11-rebound triple-double in the Los Angeles Lakers 143-135 win at the Delta Center.

I say ‘just enough,’ because for the most of the night, the Jazz (playing without Lauri Markkanen) were actually beating the Lakers, but there were little things that they let fall between the cracks that gave the edge to Doncic and the Lakers in the fourth quarter.

You can ask almost anyone what the most important part of defending Doncic is.

“Don’t foul,” Ace Bailey said, without skipping a beat.

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Easier said than done. The Jazz sent Doncic to the free throw line a total of 16 times and nine of those attempts came in the first quarter alone.

Yes, the Jazz were leading, but Doncic was getting into a rhythm with easy freebies and putting fear into the defenders — don’t get too close, or he’ll make you pay.

But also don’t let him get to his left for the step back, don’t let him take easy shots in the paint. You can probably live with him hitting some 3-pointers, so long as you make life tough on him everywhere else.

Problem is, even when you think you’re making life tough he’s just slowly putting together a 45-point night that will be punctuated with a back-breaking 3-pointer in the fourth quarter that is not well defended.

“When he gets to shoot 16 free throws and gets kind of those plays where he’s in the paint in the first half, you know, the big 3 he makes late, feels devastating,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said.

“He’s an incredible player, but it’s all those little things that add up, and then the special moment happens and it’s too far gone.”

The 3 that Doncic hit with 4:23 left in the fourth quarter was part of a 41-29 final frame by the Lakers that erased any lead the Jazz had and then took the game completely away from them.

When Doncic went to the free throw line once again, where he scored his final point of the game, the large number of Lakers fans in attendance at the Delta Center overwhelmed the Jazz fans with “Let’s go Lakers” chants, and the only recourse available was for the sound operators in the building to turn up the volume on the music to try to drown them out.

That’s the kind of gravity a player of Doncic’s caliber has. He manipulates defenses, logs five triple-doubles before Christmas and can even change the volume of the music in a building.

From the Jazz’s perspective, it was a fourth quarter letdown. From the Lakers’ point of view, it was just their best player doing what he does to get the job done.