Luka Doncic Takes Responsibility For Turnovers Against Suns

Luka Doncic remains in contention for MVP as he’s served as the engine to the Los Angeles Lakers success to begin the 2025-26 season.

Doncic has been amazing for the Lakers, scoring at will and making passes that make even his own teammates shake their heads. Doncic recently led Los Angeles to a seven-game winning streak, though that was broken on the second night of a back-to-back set.

The Lakers lost to the Phoenix Suns 125-108, snapping their win streak but importantly showing the league that there are still several things that they need to fix. Defensively, Los Angeles had no answer for a Phoenix team that lived in the paint and on open 3-pointers.

However, the Suns also turned the Lakers over 22 times with nine of them coming from Doncic. After the loss, Doncic took responsibility for his carelessness with the basketball.

“Yeah, that was my fault,” he said. “No way, I can have nine turnovers in a game. So, in that second quarter, instead of just getting the shots, instead of shooting the ball, I was trying to get involved. But there’s no way I should have nine turnovers.”

Doncic also praised Phoenix for mucking up the game and sticking to their defensive game plan.

“I feel like definitely it was different with defense than other teams and [they were] kind of trying to let me go score instead of creating for others. So, it was kind of confusing. But like I said, you just can’t have that [many turnovers],” Doncic said.

It’s normal for teams to struggle on the second night of a back-to-back, but Phoenix made L.A. look even worse with their ball pressure and constant effort on rotations. There are numerous times where a passing lane looked open for a second before a Suns defender was there to either deflect or steal the pass.

Doncic was uncharacteristically sloppy with the basketball as he tried to force passes that weren’t there or simply had the ball stripped from him. Phoenix makes their defensive living playing physically, and it seemed like it threw Doncic off for stretches.

The Lakers’ 22 turnovers resulted in 32 points for the Suns, clearly showing that it was the difference in the game. Los Angeles has gotten away with some bad habits playing against lower-level competition, but Phoenix exposed them whenever they were too loose with the basketball and Doncic knows they need to fix these issues.

“First of all, take care of the ball, obviously. Then just be more physical,” he said. “We had to make a lot of shots too, so we’ve got to welcome that too. So, take care of the ball on the offensive end and be more physical on the defensive end.”

It’s only one game and given the circumstances some of it is understandable, but Doncic and the Lakers need to be far sharper if they hope to beat some of the good teams coming up on their schedule.

Austin Reaves explains how backcourt fit with Luka Doncic has been seamless

Besides Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves is also having a strong year. The two have been the league’s leading scoring duo and Reaves explained how his fit next to next to Doncic has been seamless.