Luka Doni blames himself for Lakers championship implosion

There are certain moments that haunt us.That gnaw at us.

That creep into our minds in quiet moments and play with our emotions like a fiddle.Luka Dončić knows his. It happened on April 2 in a game against the Thunder last season.It was a measuring stick game against the reigning NBA champions.

The Lakers’ momentum was at a fever pitch. The Lakers were on a 16-2 run.Dončić was playing out of his mind, averaging 37.5 points, 8 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game in March.

He had catapulted himself into the MVP conversation and turned the Lakers into a championship contender. If Dončić led the Lakers past the Thunder, he could have leapfrogged Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the MVP race.He could have made the Lakers considered real threats for the Larry O’Brien trophy. But the game was a nightmare from tipoff. The Lakers were being steamrolled.

To make matters worse, Dončić felt a tweak in his left hamstring in the second quarter. Given the implications of this game, he decided to push through it. Even though the Lakers were down by 31 points at halftime, he decided to fight. Then disaster struck. Five minutes into the third quarter, the pain worsened. Dončić grabbed at his left hamstring again.He was taken out of the game. An MRI later revealed that he suffered a Grade 2 hamstring strain.

Dončić missed the final five games of the season.He was sidelined for the entire postseason.That moment effectively ended the Lakers’ championship hopes.

It put a red slash through his MVP campaign.It marked his team’s postseason demise. If Dončić could go back, he would. “When it comes to my spirit of trying to win, I am just stubborn,” Dončić told Sports Illustrated.

“I felt a little bit in the first half that I should have just stopped.I should have come out.

I think we had a team that could compete for the championship.I definitely regret it.”That was Dončić’s first time publicly acknowledging he wishes he would’ve handle...