The Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic delivered yet another massive stat line to completely shut down the Chicago Bulls’ momentum late in the Monday game. Beneath the 46-point explosion, however, was a quieter tension that only showed up in the postgame conference.

“I think I was just being aggressive, see what the defense gives you,” Doncic told the media when asked about balancing scoring and ball-movement, something that head coach JJ Redick has hammered home since a previous loss to the LA Clippers. “I see, probably JJ’s going to be mad. I took 25 shots, so he would tell me to pass more. I’m kidding.”

The comment landed like a joke, but the self-awareness underneath was impossible to miss, because Doncic knows what Redick wants, but also knows his own instincts don’t always cooperate. Against the Bulls tonight, he went with the flow.

What made the difference tonight wasn’t just his volume shooting, though knocking down eight threes definitely helped. The balance of shooting and Doncic‘s passes repeatedly bent the Bulls’ defense by throwing no-look passes, cross-court dimes, and lightning-fast reads that energized the whole team. Doncic seemed to realize it as well, speaking on his teammates immediately afterwards:

“Rui [Hachimura] was awesome. The whole bench was awesome today. They helped us a lot. They lifted us up in the second quarter when we were going down. So props to them.”

The forward, who recently moved to the bench, logged an outstanding offensive performance tonight, finishing with 23 points on 9/11 shooting and the second-highest plus/minus on the team.

The duality of Doncic as a scorer and creator and the mix of discipline and impulse has become the defining threat of his Lakers career so far, and it’s the tension that Redick is learning to live with.

JJ Redick Knows the Cost and the Reward of Luka Doncic’s Playing Style

During his own postgame conference, Redick was asked about Doncic’s ability to energize his teammates with passes while shooting shots that most coaches would call absurd. The coach, in turn, didn’t push back against the idea that coaching the Slovenian requires a kind of patience.

“He’s an engine that’s fully on, and he likes to create out there, and that’s part of what makes him a great player,” Redick told reporters. “You have to be willing to live with some of the stuff that he tries because more often than not, you’re going to get a great result.”

Redick openly admitted that Doncic’s style can test a coach, especially when inaccurate shots pile up, which has happened multiple times this year. The guard is having perhaps his worst long-range shooting season, converting just 33.4% of his 10.2 threes per game.

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However, having played with Doncic in Dallas, Redick knows that reining him in too tightly would be a mistake, especially when his creativity isn’t something you can toggle on and off as needed.

Against the Bulls, that philosophy paid off, and despite Doncic pushing the limits of the team’s structure with daring shots and hard passes, he lifted everyone around him. What might have frustrated Redick on one night was the same thing that powered a great road win today.