The Los Angeles Lakers lost a nail-biter to the Orlando Magic tonight, losing 110-109 with a failed attempt at a buzzer-beater. The team ran an out-of-bounds play to get superstar Luka Doncic the ball, but he hesitated after catching the ball, leading to a rushed pass to LeBron James and a brick thrown up at the buzzer. After the game, Doncic took full responsibility.

“I just saw him open,” Doncic explained to reporters who asked for clarification about the final sequence. “I didn’t want to lose the ball, and we didn’t have timeouts. But like I said, I shouldn’t have picked up the ball. I should have attacked. I thought I was getting a clean look, but that’s on me.”

On the final possession, Doncic came off two screens from Austin Reaves and Deandre Ayton, with Anthony Black and Paolo Banchero left scrambling to get to him. However, instead of taking the open shot, he hesitated, picking up the ball instead of taking a dribble to settle himself. By the time he thought of his next move, it was too late.

James, who caught the ball from Doncic, had Jonathan Isaac, one of the Magic’s best defenders, draped all over him, and had to take a tough turnaround three-pointer off the catch, an extremely difficult shot for anyone. In the aftermath, Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. managed to box out Ayton, which denied any putback opportunity, and let Orlando take home the win.

Perhaps one of the reasons Doncic hesitated to take the shot was because of his struggles throughout the game. Doncic had made just eight of his 24 shots tonight in an unusually inefficient outing that saw him miss shots from all over the floor. To make things worse, he also shot two for 10 from three and four of nine from the free throw line.

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LeBron James Seemingly Dodges Responsibility for Missed Buzzer-Beater

Unlike Luka Doncic, who directly blamed himself for the missed shot, LeBron James‘ thoughts on the final possession were far less introspective, telling reporters that he thought that the team had executed the play perfectly.

“Obviously you have to ask Luka what he saw on that,” James said in his post-game conference. “I thought he had a good look and it looked like he kind of just lost his balance. Didn’t have a rhythm with the ball, whatever the case may be.”

James pointed to Doncic not immediately shooting as the reason behind Paolo Banchero being able to catch up to him on the three-point line. He also added that when the Slovenian passed him the ball, James was already off-balance, leading to him taking a turnaround shot.

James didn’t blame Doncic outright, but he clearly didn’t take part in the blame, and through all of his comments about execution, defensive recovery, and the clean look made one thing clear: the opportunity was there.