Real Madrid got back winning ways after they absolutely smashed rivals Barcelona in their own house 101-74 on February 23rd.
For top NBA prospect Luka Doncic, it was a strange night. Doncic came off the bench sporting a sleeve on his left arm and only played 15 minutes, scoring 2 points, shooting 1-of-7 from the field, 0-of-4 from three, six assists, four rebounds, one turnover and a PIR of just 3.
This won’t be too long but still things to go over as always…
(Apologies for the lacking video quality this week, just how things went…)
Offense
A difficult night for Doncic offensively and, again, the three-point shooting wasn’t there.
In the second quarter, Doncic puts on a dribble clinic, eventually steps back and rises into a three but misses:
Very shortly after that, Doncic works himself into the corner with the dribble, floats behind the three-pointer, rises but, again, misses the three-pointer:
Doncic made sure he made up for lost time coming off of the bench and he launched another three-pointer a few minutes after that last one, this time coming in a late clock situation as some good Barcelona defense makes this attempt a tough one for Doncic:
Very good Barcelona defense, actually…
On the wing, Doncic again settles for an outside/bad shot with 15 seconds left on the shotclock:
Doncic struggled to get anything going inside the three-point line.
Here, Doncic weaves his way to the free throw line, rises into a jumper but can’t get the shot to fall:
Even the one shot Doncic made came off of his own miss, tipping in the rebound:
And to sum it up, Doncic drives inside with nowhere to go and ends up turning the ball over and committing the foul:
Passing/playmaking
Here’s where Doncic made his biggest impact of the game, with his apparent injury clearly affecting him offensively.
Here, Doncic feeds Reyes in the post with the deep bounce-pass, and Reyes takes care of the rest:
In transition, Doncic makes this nice outlet pass to Gustavo Ayon (making his long-awaited return) but Ayon is rejected at the rim:
In the second quarter, a bit of a more flashy touch from Doncic as he delivers the flashy bounce-pass to Felipe Reyes in transition for the assist:
Reyes and Doncic hooked up on multiple occasions in this game and did so again in the third quarter as Doncic lifts this pass inside to Reyes who finishes the play with the turnaround J:
One of Doncic’s better plays came in the fourth quarter as he draws a crowd (three defenders) as he pushes in transition and finds Reyes on the move for the layup:
Of course, Reyes wasn’t the only teammate Doncic hooked up with for buckets as he finds Fabien Causeur on the drive and kick for the three-pointer in the weak-side corner:
And for the play of the game, in a ‘welcome back’ kind of moment for Gustavo Ayon, Doncic hooks up with Ayon for the ally-oop:
As soon as Ayon turned, Doncic lifted the oop skywards — great feel/vision for the game to make that play.
Defense
Only two things to talk about defensively…
Doncic played this defensive possession well as he shows good defensive activity from full court before committing a bad foul and being subsequently yanked afterwards:
Not a good way to give a team some free throws…
Doncic showed some better defensive play as he did a good job chasing around these screens, getting himself back into the defensive play:
Good defense from Ayon too on the show…
In closing @ Barcelona…
Not a ton to say here…just one of those games for Doncic.
He definitely seemed bothered by his injury but was still able to make things happen when it came to getting others involved with those six assists — Felipe Reyes being the big beneficiary in this game.
Just 15 minutes played, struggling from the field…yeah… There’s nothing to say here for this game.
Graham Chapple 