Luka Dončić was in the middle of another jawing match Wednesday, this time with Golden State rookie Yaxel Lendeborg, as the Los Angeles Lakers rolled past the Golden State Warriors 127-105. The exchange added heat to a game that already had a one-sided result and gave the night a sharper edge than the final score alone suggested.
Ziaire Williams had a front-row view of it in his Lakers debut, and he did not sound bothered by the noise. He scored nine points in 24 minutes, added four assists, three rebounds and one steal, and said it was much easier to watch Dončić’s trash talk from the right side. “Oh man, it’s cool. It’s a lot better when you’re on his side than the other side for sure,” Williams said after the win.
Williams also pointed to the rookie on the other end of the exchange and credited him for holding his ground. “The rookie, he was talking a lot of smack too, so I mean shout out to him for not backing down,” he said. Then he added that Dončić still came out on top in the exchange. “Luka definitely had the better day, but I mean, at least he didn’t back away from the challenge so shout out to him.”
That praise did not stop there. Williams called Dončić the best player in the world and said that level keeps showing up every day. It was a striking line to pair with the trash talk on the floor, but it fit the way the game unfolded: Dončić was dominant, the Lakers outscored Golden State by 12 points during Williams’s 24 minutes, and the outcome never really looked in doubt after the opening stretch.
The larger picture is familiar. Dončić has built a long track record of needling opponents over an eight-year career, and he has already had a brief spat with Williams before, when Williams was with Brooklyn and the two sides met last season. This rivalry is not done either. The teams will face each other three more times in the regular season, which leaves room for more than one more flashpoint between Dončić and a Warriors roster that now knows exactly what kind of night he can turn a game into.
