Luka Doncic scored 40 points Wednesday night, and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Sacramento Kings 116-103 on the road. With the performance, Doncic became the third Laker to score 35 or more points in six straight games, joining Kobe Bryant and Elgin Baylor.
After the game, Lakers coach JJ Redick said this is “probably” the hottest stretch of basketball he can remember from Doncic.
“This and March,” Redick said. “The entire month of March last year.”
Last season, Doncic averaged 37.5 points in 16 March games, shooting 49.2% overall and 39.2% from 3-point range on 12.8 attempts. That surge included a 51-point game in a home win over the Chicago Bulls and 100 combined points during a two-night road run against the Houston Rockets and Miami Heat.
A Start That Rivals Last Spring
Statistically, the current run to open this regular season matches that stretch. Doncic scored 52 points in a road win over the Utah Jazz on Oct. 25, then followed with 41, 37, 45, 42 and 40 points in his next five games.
Doncic also became the first player in NBA history to record six straight games of 35-plus points, five-plus rebounds, five-plus assists and five-plus made 3-pointers.
“He closed out Houston for the second win in three nights,” Redick said. “Then we went to Miami, got in at 4 a.m. and he had 60 [points]. That stretch was pretty magical.”
Asked whether he had ever been hotter, Doncic was measured in his response.
“Maybe,” Doncic said. “I don’t know. I’ve had some good stretches in my career. Obviously, this could be one of the highest ones. But still some work to do.”
Fast Starts Fuel the Lakers
Doncic has been especially dangerous early in games. Against the Kings, he hit jumpers from 16, 27, 29 and 30 feet during one second-quarter stretch, sparking a personal 11-2 run that broke the game open. He finished the first half with 23 points.
That marked the sixth consecutive game in which Doncic scored 20 or more points in the first half. He had done it once before, as a member of the Dallas Mavericks in 2023. Allen Iverson accomplished the feat in 2005, and those are the only such first-half streaks in the past 30 seasons.
“He comes down [in the second quarter] and makes three shots in a row that there’s only five guys in the NBA can make,” Redick said. “All of a sudden a tie ballgame is a nine- or 10-point lead. The team feeds off that.”
The Lakers did feed off it. They pushed their lead as high as 18 points on the way to a runaway win over the 1-7 Kings. Doncic finished with 40 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, and the Lakers improved to 7-2 on the season.
“You can call it a wave, you can call it a tsunami, you can call it whatever you want,” Lakers center Walker Kessler said. “He’s scoring the ball. If you want to call it a wave, we’re surfing the wave a little bit.”