Improved play not enough for Pacers as Luka Doncic proves unstoppable
Believe it or not, the Pacers played better.
LOS ANGELES – The first quarter of Pacers vs Lakers was barely halfway over Friday night when Jay Huff dropped in a floater to give the Pacers a 17-13 lead. Huff had seven points at the time. Lakers star Luka Doncic had eight.
Doncic hit a free throw shortly after and was just ahead of Huff's total with a 9-7 points advantage. There were three minutes left in the opening period. Then, everything changed in an instant.
The Lakers star hit two free throws and two difficult threes within 58 seconds. He followed it up with three-straight buckets for LA deep in the opening quarter. Doncic scored 14 points in 2:47, allowing him to race past Huff's total and allowing the hosts to take a 10-point first-quarter lead.
Tony East
"He's the greatest player I've ever coached," Pacers head coach Rick Carlsile said of Doncic pregame. "You show me a great player that isn't stubborn and doesn't get pissed off at things, and I'll show you a guy that's not a great player."
The Pacers never led again. Doncic's late first-quarter flurry started their slide, and while they battled and were within seven early in the third quarter, beating the Slovenian superstar was impossible on Friday night.
Yet the Pacers tried and did many things effectively – they looked much better than they have in recent games. The Pacers made more shots (46 to 45), attempted more free throws (24 to 23), had more assists (33 to 25), more blocks (four to two), more steals (10 to five), fewer turnovers (seven to 12), and fouled less often (19 to 22). They played a competitive game in many box score categories.
The missing area for the Pacers was three-point shooting. They went 8/35 from deep, tied for their third-worst shooting game from the outside this season. The Lakers, meanwhile, were 17/37 from beyond the arc, the sixth-best mark by a Pacers opponent in 2025-26.
Doncic speadheaded it all. He made seven threes, a total the Pacers didn't reach as a team until the 6:05 mark of the fourth quarter. So while many things went the Pacers way Friday night, they were unable to hit from deep and unable to limit Doncic. That was the entire game.
"Just gotta play a little harder," Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith said of the Pacers and their defense of late. "I think we've gotta pay better attention to the schemes. I think we're just having too many breakdowns, and we're not playing the full 24 (shot clock seconds)."
It was a better performance overall, but the same result for the Pacers. They've now lost eight games in a row since the All-Star break and have dropped to 15-48. They've been struggling with getting stops, But this loss was less about poor defense and more about the brilliance of one player.
Luka Doncic was superhuman
Doncic, as noted above, scored 14 points in under three minutes to close the first quarter. 14 points would have been the fourth-most on the Pacers over the course of the entire game Friday night, only behind Andrew Nembhard, Huff, and Pascal Siakam.
Doncic had 22 points when that first quarter ended. Only Siakam (26) scored more in the entire outing. No other Laker reached 20 points total. The star guard took over in the first 12 minutes in a way that few can.
"He was making a lot of tough shots," Nembhard said of Doncic. "I think we just made him a little too comfortable throughout the night."
At halftime, Doncic had 29 points. His dominant night was far from over. In the third quarter, the 27-year old scored 15 more points, including a step-back three that banked in with six seconds left in the third quarter. He could not miss.
That gave Doncic 44 points for the game, and he didn't appear in the fourth quarter. He scored 44 in just under 32 minues, carrying the Lakers without LeBron James.
He became the third player to score at least 44 points in one game against the Pacers this season, joining Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (twice) and Jamal Murray. Carlisle's pregame praise proved prescient as the six-time All-Star showed why he's been an MVP candidate in past seasons.
"He's that good. The run at the end of the first quarter gave them significant separation that we were never able to make up," Carlisle said of Doncic after the loss. "Great players are hard to deal with."
Aaron Nesmith is searching for rhythm
Nesmith shot 3/10 against the Lakers, including 1/6 from three-point range. It was an off-night for the veteran wing, who is in a nasty slump right now.
Since February 1, Nesmith is shooting 35.1% from the field on all shots, including 26.7% on twos. He's been such a good play finisher in past seasons that the Pacers shoudn't be concenred, but the normally-reliable Nesmith is now shooting a career-low from the field.
Nesmith's three-point percentage this season (35.5%) is a drop from recent Pacers seasons but near his early-career marks. His work inside the arc is where the issues arise – Nesmith is shooting 40.8% on twos this season, a career low by far.
Basketball Reference's shot distance tracking data shows poor percentages from Nesmith at basically every distance inside the three-point line, but his 49.2% mark from 0-3 feet really stands out. He shot over 70% within that length last season.
I asked Nesmith about these struggles postgame on Friday. "It seems like it's been a tough season for me just to find my rhythm. I couldn't tell you the last time I've played like seven or 10 games in a row," Nesmith said. "I just feel like I'm getting in, then I'm getting out, then I'm getting in, then I'm getting out. So it's been an up and down season."
Nesmith is right, his season has been very start-then-stop. He played the Pacers first nine games before an absence, then just two of the team's next 23 games. He then played 11 games in a row, missed one, then played seven straight. Given his comments about rhyhtm, it shouldn't be surprising to see that seven-game stretch rank among his most efficient this season (40.5% from deep, 55.3% on twos).
Since then, he's played six times since February 3. So while wins and losses are no longer the right measure for the Pacers success, perhaps finding Nesmith some flow before the season ends could be a win.
"I'm just looking forward to hopefully finishing these last 20 games or so with a strong stretch," he said. His first opportunity to get a run going will come Sunday in Portland.
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