- NBA
Luka Doncic’s nutmeg alley-oop channeled the ‘Showtime’ Lakers
by Ricky O'DonnellNov 24, 2025, 2:58 PM UTC
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.Luka Doncic doesn’t need to play himself into shape this season, and it’s got the Los Angeles Lakers off to a hot start to begin the 2025-26 campaign. The Lakers beat the Utah Jazz , 108-106, on Sunday night to improve to 12-4 overall, tied for the second-best record in the Western Conference. Doncic is fully putting his imprint on the Lakers in his first full year with the team, and it’s bringing back memories of the “Showtime” era with his nightly highlights in the open floor.
Doncic actually lowered his league-leading scoring average by dropping “only” 33 points on the Jazz on Sunday night. He enters the week averaging 34.5 points per game. For as tantalizing as Doncic is as a scorer, his best moments have often been as a playmaker dating back to the start of his career. He had one of the highlight reel in the win over the Jazz.
In the second quarter, Doncic picked off a pass headed to the corner, pushed it up floor, put the ball between Kevin Love’s legs, and threw a perfect alley-oop to teammate Jaxson Hayes. Watch the play here.
That’s some perfect “Luka Magic.” How many players are really trying the nut-meg in that situation? How many can scoop it so easily and then throw a pinpoint alley-oop to a streaking teammate?
It’s a cliche to say a player showed up to training camp in the “best shape of their life,” but it actually feels true with Doncic this season. The shocking trade from the Mavericks last season obviously hurt him and motivated him to address the concerns Nico Harrison had. Harrison may have been right about Luka’s conditioning last year, but he was still wrong to trade him because someone can always get in shape. Finding another guard capable of doing transition nutmegs into alley-oops while scoring almost 35 points per game just isn’t possible.
It’s been so fun to watch Luka’s revenge season, and it’s just getting started.
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