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The Los Angeles Lakers kicked off Luka Dončić's debut with a victory, but suffered a loss on Wednesday, bringing an end to their six-game winning streak. Now, they are faced with some lingering questions to address.

The main question: Who is going to be manning the paint in playoff games now that Anthony Davis is gone?

The Utah Jazz defeated the Lakers 131-119, though the more notable number was a 54-36 points-in-the-paint discrepancy. Swapping out Davis for Dončić left the team short on a quality big man, an issue the Mark Williams trade was supposed to address until the Lakers scrapped the trade due to medical reasons.

That left the Lakers with two rotation-worthy traditional big men entering Wednesday: Jaxson Hayes and Alex Len, the latter of whom was signed on the buyout market the day before. Hayes left the game Wednesday with a facial contusion after playing seven minutes. Len posted four points on 2-of-5 shooting with seven rebounds in 23 minutes.

That was more playing time than the Lakers were planning. Head coach JJ Redick noted after the game that's been a common occurrence with their bench this year:

"I thought [Len] was fine. It just feels like it's been a lot of that this year, where we've had to put guys in tough spots, we've had to put our two-way guys in tough spots, we had to put Alex in a tough spot. He was fine."

On the bright side, Dalton Knecht, who would be a member of the Charlotte Hornets right now if the Williams trade went through, had 10 points off the bench.

For the Jazz, Lauri Markkanen led all scorers with 32 points on 11-of-18 shooting, while Jazz center Walker Kessler had 16 points on 8-of-8 shooting with eight rebounds and six blocks.

Utah lob connection off the inbounds

Keyonte George lofts it in to Walker Kessler for the slam! pic.twitter.com/Jq1BYbWMrZ

— NBA (@NBA) February 13, 2025

Dončić finished the game with 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting, four assists, four rebounds and five turnovers.

Landing Dončić was undoubtedly a coup for the Lakers because of how the 25-year-old All-NBA first-teamer transforms their long-term outlook, but in the short term they need to figure out how to make their current big man rotation work.

Williams has dealt with injuries for much of his career, but he also rebounds at an elite rate (his 20.6% rebounding rate would rate fourth in the NBA if he logged enough minutes) and he would have been a natural offensive fit as a lob threat for Dončić, a la fellow Duke big man Dereck Lively II.

Now, barring another buyout signing, the Lakers are likely going to be starting one of Hayes or Len in a playoff game, in a conference with Nikola Jokić, Alperen Şengün, Domantas Sabonis, Jaren Jackson Jr., Ivica Zubac, Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama.

Not to mention Anthony Davis.