Luka Doncic exploded for 52 points but his defense is what spurred the Lakers comeback over Jazz

SALT LAKE CITY — Luka Doncic’s offensive flurry to close out the Lakers’ comeback road win over the Jazz on Sunday drew all of the attention.And understandably so.His 52 points at Delta Center are the most scored by a player so far in the 2026-27 season.The trio of 3-pointers he hit in the final few minutes of the game were all consequential: The first tied at the game at 116 apiece with just over four minutes left; the second gave the Lakers a five-point lead with 2:22 left in the game; and the third not only gave Doncic’s team a 127-121 lead with 1:42 left, but also gave him his 10th career 50-point game (third as a Laker).And that’s not even factoring in him assisting Austin Reaves on a 3 that iced the game, putting the Lakers up 130-123 with 34 seconds left while Doncic and Reaves taunted the crowd.But it was his contributions on the less glamorous end of the floor that put the Lakers in the positions they were in to come back from an 18-point deficit.In the midst of the Slovenian superstar’s offensive onslaught was one of the biggest defensive plays of the game.After making the 3 that tied the game at 116, the 6-foot-8 guard slid into the proper help defensive position to take a charge against Keyonte George driving into the paint before the Jazz guard could make the kickout pass to Doncic’s man, Ace Bailey, in the corner. Doncic made a pair of free throws on the Lakers’ ensuing possession after drawing a foul to give his team a lead they held for the remainder of the game. “At the end of the day, he’s a competitor, he wants to win,” Walker Kessler said.“He wants to do what it takes to win.

That charge was not only a great play, but just a great momentum change.”Doncic had a momentum-changing defensive play earlier in the game that led to an immediate offensive payoff.He closed out the second quarter by stripping Bailey on his drive to the rim before hitting a pull-up 3, giving the Lakers a 74-71 lead going into halftime after they ...