Luka Doncic Made Honest Admission About His Turbulent Season After Lakers’ Loss

In a cruel twist of fate, Luka Doncic suffered yet another 4-1 series loss after his Los Angeles Lakers crashed out of the first round of the NBA playoffs on Wednesday night.

Doncic, who also lost 4-1 in last year's finals series against the Boston Celtics back when he was still playing for the Dallas Mavericks, saw his season end this time against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 5's 103-96 defeat.

Doncic finished the game with a game-high 28 points, but shot just 7-of-18 from the field and 2-of-8 from beyond the arc. It was a brutal end to a turbulent season for the Lakers star, and he opened up about how he was feeling following the tough loss.

"I'm mentally kind of exhausted after everything that happened. I know a lot of people won't believe me, but I am," Doncic said in a postgame presser.

When asked whether he learned anything about himself after all that transpired—his blockbuster trade in February, the Mavericks' relentless critiques of him, the Nico Harrison drama—Doncic just gave a wry smile.

"I don't know what I learned about myself," Doncic said. "I think now it's going to be time to process everything just emotionally, just going through it all, looking back. I'll let you know in the preseason what I learn about myself."

The Timberwolves outscored the Lakers by a whopping 42 points in the fourth quarter throughout the five-game series, despite Los Angeles boasting two of the league's top closers in LeBron James and Doncic.

Though his first season in a Lakers jersey likely didn't go as well as he expected, Doncic expressed optimism for his future in L.A. and his excitement over getting more time to bond with James.

"It's tough to get that chemistry on the court without any practices, so I'm really excited to have the preseason with [LeBron and Reaves] so we can learn about each other," continued Doncic. "I look back to Kyrie when he got traded to the Mavs, we didn't really connect on the court, we didn't really know each other games... Next year, we had preseason together and it was just amazing. That's how I look at it."