With the shot clock winding down under one second, Luka Doncic attempted a daring step-back shot. Evading the lengthy reach of Minnesota Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels, who stands 6-foot-11, Doncic launched the ball high into the air towards the Crypto.com Arena ceiling.
The shot found the net just before the buzzer, giving the Lakers a one-point lead with 6:30 left in the fourth quarter of Game 5 on Wednesday night.
“Lu-ka! Lu-ka!” chants echoed through the arena. Doncic smirked as he retreated down the court, displaying his signature blend of determination and skill, despite his body struggling after tweaking his back in a first-half collision with Wolves guard Donte DiVincenzo.
In that moment, Doncic appeared as the confident playmaker he is known for. The Los Angeles Lakers seemed poised to prove their worth, and their fanbase was reminded of the overwhelming hope they felt after the surprising trade that brought Doncic to L.A. in early February.
However, this turned out to be the last highlight of the Lakers` 2024-25 season.
It was the final shot Doncic made and the last lead L.A. held, as Minnesota closed the game on a 16-8 run. The Lakers missed nine of their last 12 attempts, including Doncic`s final two shots.
This rapid decline in momentum mirrored the Lakers` season as a whole, and particularly Doncic`s personal journey, which was marked by significant upheaval. Few players could better understand such a dramatic turn of events.
The changes he experienced after being traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Lakers three months prior were numerous and profound.
The 26-year-old, a first-team All-NBA selection for the past five seasons, transitioned from being a franchise cornerstone and potential future Hall-of-Famer in Dallas to joining a team centered around LeBron James, a franchise with its own storied history and legendary players.
It was a season defined by transformation, conflicting narratives, and attempts at revival.
Not everything was unfamiliar. Doncic brought his pregame ritual from Dallas to Los Angeles. After his usual 3-point shooting practice, he attempts three half-court shots. If he makes one, several Lakers assistant coaches who rebound for him have to do pushups. If he misses all three, Doncic owes the coaches body-weight squats or pushups, which he completes at the center court circle.
This small routine was an example of Doncic seeking comfort and stability in a season that lacked both. Sources told ESPN that it was also a response to whispers following the trade, showing a commitment to extra conditioning after joining the Lakers with a strained left calf that sidelined him for 5½ weeks.
His game-day starts at 9 a.m. with bodywork, shooting drills, weightlifting, and a cold tub, sources said. Maintaining his enjoyable pregame routine was a sign, according to one source, of Doncic recognizing that the faster he returned to peak physical condition with his new team, the sooner the Lakers could reach their full potential.
The potential envisioned for the team far exceeded their actual performance. Wednesday night concluded a disappointing five-game first-round loss to a Minnesota team that was larger, deeper, and younger. The Lakers were largely outplayed in almost every aspect.
Their season felt like a race against time: Doncic rushing his recovery and integration into the Lakers` system; first-year coach JJ Redick trying to accelerate his coaching learning curve; president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka attempting to reshape the roster around Doncic; and James, turning 40, somehow still delivering championship-caliber play.
Time ran out for chemistry to develop. Time ran out to acquire a center who could both complement Doncic and protect the rim. Time is running out for James.
“I don`t know,” James said after Game 5 when asked about how much longer he plans to play. “I don`t have the answer to that.”
The Lakers entered the series favored to advance. They now head into the offseason much earlier than anticipated, facing numerous questions and significant uncertainty.
The Lakers` postseason slogan, “Unleash Joy,” was meant to reflect Doncic`s demeanor during those half-court shooting contests. The team even promoted it via email, calling it the motto for their “2025 playoff run.”
That run lasted only 12 days. The Lakers lost Game 1, the first playoff opener they hosted in L.A. since James joined in 2018, by 22 points. They won Game 2 but then lost the next two straight in Minneapolis, being outscored by a combined 20 points over the final five minutes of both games.
L.A.`s most apparent weakness was in their frontcourt.
Three days after trading Anthony Davis to Dallas for Doncic, the Lakers arranged a deal with the Charlotte Hornets to acquire 7-footer Mark Williams, a promising but injury-prone young center. He was expected to provide Doncic with a reliable lob threat besides Jaxson Hayes. Sources said Williams was Doncic`s preferred target among potential trade options, a choice influenced by his successful pairings with Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford in Dallas.
The trade was agreed upon the night before the trade deadline, a last-minute move by the Lakers` front office after already successfully completing the Doncic trade and acquiring Dorian Finney-Smith from the Brooklyn Nets in late December.
However, Williams never played for L.A. He failed the team`s physical examination, and the Lakers “just couldn`t live with what they saw,” a source familiar with the situation told ESPN.
The trade was reversed, a rare occurrence in the NBA, sending Williams back to Charlotte and rookie Dalton Knecht, Cam Reddish, and a future first-round pick back to L.A.
With the deadline passed, Pelinka couldn`t put together another trade using the same assets. So, L.A. signed 7-footer Alex Len off the waiver wire. Sources said Len was already in an Indianapolis hotel, planning to sign with the Pacers after being released by the Sacramento Kings, but was persuaded by the opportunity to play alongside James, Doncic, and the Lakers, and changed his plans.
Len joined the team but didn`t enter Redick`s rotation. After signing with L.A., Len played in only 10 of 31 games. Meanwhile, Williams played 21 games for Charlotte down the stretch, averaging 14.9 points on 62.5% shooting.
Redick played Hayes for the first four minutes of Game 4 before keeping him on the bench for the remainder of the series.
Minnesota already possessed frontcourt depth, having added two rotation players by trading Karl-Anthony Towns to New York for Julius Randle and DiVincenzo before the season, strengthening a team that reached the conference finals the previous year. This advantage became even more pronounced as the series progressed and Redick tightened his rotation.
Redick inserted Finney-Smith into the starting lineup alongside the core players and played those five players for the entire second half in Game 4. This strategy was widely criticized and had reportedly never been done before in a playoff game in nearly 30 years, since substitution data began being tracked in 1997, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. It was a high-stakes gamble in a crucial moment, and Redick lost.
But the first-year coach defended his decision before Game 5, responding to a question about whether he had consulted his assistant coaches before playing Doncic (who was recovering from a stomach virus that severely limited him in Game 3) and James (dealing with a left hip flexor and left groin issue entering the postseason) for 24 continuous minutes.
“Are you saying that because I`m inexperienced, and that was an inexperienced decision that I made?” Redick asked. “Do you think I don`t talk to my assistants about substitutions every single timeout?
“That`s a weird assumption,” he said, before leaving the news conference.
After the game, visibly emotional, Redick admitted he had room for growth as a coach.
“I know I can be better,” he stated. “I know I will improve. I don`t necessarily take any satisfaction from how the year went. That doesn`t mean I`m not proud of what the group achieved, how we managed to figure things out on the fly, and put ourselves in a position to have home-court advantage in the first round, but there are always ways to get better, and I can get much better.”
Following Game 1, Wolves forward Jaden McDaniels commented on taking advantage of the Lakers` lack of size.
“I just noticed at certain times when they had no rim protector in the game, when Jaxson Hayes wasn`t on the court,” he said. “If he`s not on the court, I`m basically the tallest person out there. So I don`t think no one could rim protect me.”
McDaniels scored a team-high 25 points on 11-for-13 shooting in that game.
In Game 5, the Lakers were significantly outrebounded 54-37, including an 18-8 disadvantage on the offensive glass.
“We couldn`t get rebounds,” Lakers forward Rui Hachimura said. “We need someone to get rebounds.”
Rudy Gobert, standing 7-1, grabbed nine offensive rebounds and 24 total, while scoring 27 points on 12-for-15 shooting.
“Gobert looked like Shaq,” a team source told ESPN after the game.
Sitting at the podium after the Lakers` season-ending defeat, James was asked if playing without a true center for the final three months of the season had affected him or the playoff series.
“No comment,” James replied with a smile. “I`d never say that. Because my guy AD said it, what he needed, and he was gone the following week.”
There were encouraging moments this season that demonstrated the team`s potential, such as an eight-game winning streak in late February against strong opponents including Denver, Minnesota, New York, and two victories against the Clippers.
Yet, there were also puzzling losses, including one in Brooklyn and two within six days against the Chicago Bulls. The first was an inexplicable 31-point blowout. The second, which ended with a Josh Giddey 47-foot buzzer-beater, foreshadowed some of the issues that ultimately plagued the team this season.
After holding a 16-point lead entering the fourth quarter against Chicago, the Lakers faltered. Leading by five with 12 seconds left, Bulls wing Patrick Williams hit an open 3-pointer to cut the lead to 115-113.
On the subsequent inbounds play, James threw a poor pass that was stolen by Giddey, who then passed to an open Coby White for a 26-foot 3-pointer, giving the Bulls the lead.
After a late-season road win against the Oklahoma City Thunder, James acknowledged that the team was still a work in progress.
“We`re just trying to develop good habits,” James said. “It`s all about habits. We`re simply trying to build our habits right now, heading into the final stretch of the season.”
Habits are built through repetition. They are refined through trial and error.
“It was like speed dating,” one team source told ESPN. “Even if it`s going well, your approach isn`t going to work with every partner. There`s only a limited amount of time to put in the work.”
Nevertheless, the Lakers have reasons for optimism. In James` first season with the Lakers, they missed the playoffs. The following season, after adding Anthony Davis, they won the championship. In Doncic`s first season with Kyrie Irving, the Mavericks missed the playoffs. After restructuring their supporting cast midseason, they reached the NBA Finals the next year.
A source close to Doncic told ESPN that the Slovenian star defeated Minnesota last season with a Dallas Mavericks team “built around him.” In L.A., the source noted, “Luka inherited these players and these players inherited Luka.”
The Lakers were attempting to redefine their offensive and defensive systems, which were already new after Redick replaced the fired Darvin Ham. They aimed to tailor these systems to Doncic`s strengths while trying to mitigate his weaknesses.
Unlike Nico Harrison, the Mavericks` president of basketball operations and general manager, who decided Doncic`s limitations outweighed his brilliance, the Lakers are eager to take on the challenge of unleashing the ultimate version of their star guard.
“It`s incredibly exciting to have the prospect of him being central to our next decade of Lakers basketball, being able to build a team around him and him being the cornerstone of our franchise,” Pelinka said Thursday during an end-of-season news conference.
After the early playoff exit, Doncic will finally have a chance to rest and reset. A source close to him described this season as “the most unexpected year of Luka`s life.”
He plans to spend the summer playing for the Slovenian men`s national basketball team at EuroBasket, sources said. Members of his personal “body team,” including Slovenian national team strength coach Anže Maček and physiotherapist Javier Barrio Calvo, will be with him throughout the offseason.
Redick, speaking alongside Pelinka at Thursday`s news conference, outlined his offseason expectations for the team. In a message seemingly directed at Doncic, Redick stated: “We have to get into championship shape.”
On August 2, the Lakers are eligible to offer Doncic a four-year contract extension worth $229 million. According to ESPN NBA front office insider Bobby Marks, Doncic could also choose to sign a three-year extension for $165 million with a player option in 2028, which would then allow him to sign a maximum deal in 2028, giving him 35% of the salary cap for five seasons.
Sources close to Doncic indicate he will take his time making a decision, although he told ESPN`s Malika Andrews before the playoffs that he wants to remain in Los Angeles.
Doncic was publicly and privately devastated by the trade to the Lakers. He had previously stated he wanted to retire in Dallas. But there is a positive angle to consider, a way to help heal the wounds of a defeat that brings more questions than answers.
“For Luka,” a source close to him told ESPN, “it`s kind of like, `I`m wanted here.`”
Sources said James made a deliberate effort to empower Doncic since his arrival in L.A. James will not try to influence his teammate`s decision.
“No, that`s not my job,” James told ESPN. “I think… I don`t think, I know, Luka knows how I feel about him. And ultimately, that trade happened for the future. That`s not for me. Luka has to decide what he has to do with his future. He`s [26] years old, I`m 40, so he can`t be basing his career off me. That`s just reality.
“But I hope, obviously, [he stays long term]. Laker fans f—ing love him here. L.A. has embraced him. We love him as a teammate, as a brother. But ultimately, he`s got to make a decision for himself. Honestly, I`m not going to be around much longer.”
The Lakers have clearly indicated their desire to invest in Doncic for the long term.
“I think Luka Doncic joining forces with the Los Angeles Lakers is a seismic event in NBA history,” Pelinka said at his introductory news conference.
However, until that day in August arrives, the team faces the task of presenting its vision and demonstrating to Doncic that this year`s first-round loss was an anomaly, merely a difficult start to what they hope will be a lengthy and successful partnership.
