lakers-court-imagn.png
Imagn Images

Luka Dončić led the Lakers to a 135-118 win against the Clippers Tuesday night, finishing with 43 points, 13 assists and nine rebounds. Despite the MVP-caliber night, Dončić made sure to note the safety hazard of the Lakers' neon yellow NBA Cup court, and asked for the league to change the courts altogether.

"Change the courts, please," Dončić said after the game. "It's just slippery. It's dangerous. I slipped. I slipped a lot of times, and you could see a lot of players slipped. And that's dangerous, man."

Later in the week, Dončić got his wish.

The Lakers will not be using the yellow NBA Cup court in their group-stage finale on Friday. When L.A. hosts Anthony Davis and Dončić's former team, the Mavericks, the team will use a regular court. The Lakers' NBA Cup court was deemed "unplayable" by league court vendors, per ESPN, and was sent out for repairs.

This isn't the firs time Dončić has voiced concern about the NBA Cup courts. During the inaugural NBA Cup tournament in 2023 when he was still a member of the Mavericks, the All-Star guard called out the New Orleans Pelicans' court for being too slippery. Dončić said there were dead spots on the floor because of the court and that the Mavericks shouldn't have played on it because it wasn't stable.

There is a difference between the Cup courts and the regular ones that are used for majority of the season. Because of the full-court designs and different colors, the entire court is essentially one big painted decal. On most of the Cup courts, there isn't a speck of wood grain showing through, which gives the players less traction when playing.

Dončić noticed how slippery the court was during pregame warmups, and requested for it to be swept again. However, it didn't completely solve the problem.

Traction problems aside though, Dončić clearly had no problem putting up massive numbers against the Clippers. He shot over 50% from the floor and 3-point range, though perhaps the reason he took 12 3-point attempts was because he didn't want to run the risk of slipping while trying to get to the basket. Either way, it didn't seem to impact his ability to put points on the board.