{"id":624969,"date":"2026-02-25T23:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T23:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/624969\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T23:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T23:56:13","slug":"lakers-lose-110-109-to-magic-on-awkward-final-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/624969\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Lose 110-109 to Magic on Awkward Final Play"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Lakers fell 110-109 to the Orlando Magic after guard Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and forward LeBron James couldn\u2019t find a good shot on their final possession<\/p>\n<p>The Los Angeles Lakers fell 110-109 on Feb. 24 to the Orlando Magic at the Crypto.com Arena after guard Luka Don\u010di\u0107 made an awkward pass to forward LeBron James on their final possession as they failed to score.  <\/p>\n<p>With 6.7 seconds left on the clock, Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. made a layup to give Orlando a one-point lead. The Lakers called a timeout before James inbounded a pass to Don\u010di\u0107.<\/p>\n<p>Once Don\u010di\u0107 had the ball, it appeared he had an open shot, but he held the ball instead of shooting. Magic forward Paolo Banchero and guard Anthony Black proceeded to double-team Don\u010di\u0107, preventing him from getting off a shot.<\/p>\n<p>With less than five seconds on the clock, Don\u010di\u0107 passed the ball to James.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know I was open, but I just thought I was a little bit far,\u201d Don\u010di\u0107 said. \u201cTried to take one dribble closer. And I probably shouldn\u2019t have picked up the ball and just tried to attack.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Lakers crumble on the final play of the game\u2026 Magic win!<\/p>\n<p>Luka had a WIDE OPEN look \ud83d\ude33 <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/O4uxlufhKo\">pic.twitter.com\/O4uxlufhKo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BleacherReport\/status\/2026543628445954124?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 25, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>James shot a 3-point attempt that bounced off the rim and backboard, failing to go in. The Lakers rebounded the ball but time ran out before they could get off a shot, securing the victory for the Magic.<\/p>\n<p>After the game, James said he thought Don\u010di\u0107 had a good shot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center is-style-altfont has-secondary-color has-text-color has-link-color has-xs-font-size wp-elements-a392843e06eac12cec56e735f4f8219f has-lg-margin-top\" style=\"letter-spacing:1px;text-transform:uppercase\">Scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought he had a good look, and it looked like he kind of just lost his balance,\u201d James said. \u201cDidn\u2019t have a rhythm with the ball, whatever the case may be. And it kind of allowed [Orlando\u2019s defense] to get back in front of him. And I was kind of off-balance when he gave it to me. I thought he had a great look. That\u2019s my POV.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">LeBron James on the final possession tonight: <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Obviously, you have to ask Luka what he saw on that. I thought he had a good look\u2026I was kind of off balance when he gave it to me. I thought he had a great look.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>(h\/t <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ohnohedidnt24?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ohnohedidnt24<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ISPDlLcKAt\">pic.twitter.com\/ISPDlLcKAt<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheHoopCentral\/status\/2026546404450250965?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 25, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Don\u010di\u0107 was 2-10 from beyond the arch during the game, but he said he thought he had enough time to get in a better position, which is why he didn\u2019t shoot the ball. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe a little bit,\u201d Don\u010di\u0107 said. \u201cI think I thought it was more time. It was, what, six, seven seconds. It was enough time to get a better look, try to drive the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Don\u010di\u0107 also said he did not speak to James about the play after the game, and despite thinking James had a good shot to win it, he should taken the shot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI shouldn\u2019t have picked up the ball,\u201d Don\u010di\u0107. \u201cI should have attacked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Lakers had a 12-point lead early in the third and led 80-79 entering the fourth quarter, meaning this is the first time all season the Lakers lost a game after leading through the first three quarters. They had previously been 25-0.<\/p>\n<p>Banchero was the leading scorer in the game as he had 36 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in 38 minutes on the court. Don\u010di\u0107 led the scoring for the Lakers with 22 points and also had nine rebounds and 15 assists.<\/p>\n<p>The Lakers\u2019 next game is tomorrow against the Phoenix Suns at the Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix. This will be their first road game after an eight-game home stand where they went 4-4.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a bit upsetting,\u201d Lakers center Deandre Ayton\u00a0said. \u201cWe still got a lot of chances to just get in as good of a position as we can. Did feel weird in the homestand, just being 4-4. It was tough losses and played against some really good teams.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Lakers fell 110-109 to the Orlando Magic after guard Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and forward LeBron James&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,1586,4034,1698,300,4044,185,251,150,4033,4043,41948,6],"class_list":["post-624969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-lakers","tag-basketball","tag-deandre-ayton","tag-la","tag-la-lakers","tag-lakers","tag-lalakers","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangeleslakers","tag-luka-doni","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116133979223278939","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}