Luka Doncic takes the blame for significant Lakers loss

All the stars, except for one, showed out Thursday when the Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Golden State Warriors in a game with playoff implications. 

Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Austin Reaves scored over 30 points, and Jimmy Butler made his imprint defensively, but the other star in the equation, Luka Doncic, was underwhelming.  

Doncic shot a paltry 6-of-17 from the floor and, concerningly, took only three shots in the fourth quarter when the Lakers outscored the Warriors 39-35 and nearly pulled off a come-from-behind win. The Slovenian was also not his usual maestro as a playmaker, finishing with only two assists in the fourth quarter and seven overall. 

To the Warriors' credit, they denied Doncic the ball through traps, double teams or full-court pressure. The star guard had to contend with Butler, Jonathan Kuminga or Draymond Green every time he got past his first defender. He had absolutely no respite.

Doncic took full responsibility for the Lakers' loss, downplaying that Golden State's entire defensive scheme was built around stopping him.

"That performance from me was unacceptable," Doncic said. "When I play like that, it makes it harder for the team to win, so I just got to figure that out.... It's always frustrating when you can't help your team. It's not always about scoring, you can do other stuff on the court and try to help in other ways."

Doncic's performance was so poor that a 114-game streak of him making at least one three-pointer was snapped.