Luka Doncic scored 53 points and hit the shot of the night from nearly three-quarter court, carrying the Los Angeles Lakers to a 124-118 comeback win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena.
The Lakers trailed by as many as 16 points in the second quarter and missed their first 15 three-point attempts. Then Doncic banked in a 62-foot heave at the halftime buzzer, the Lakers outscored Portland 34-15 in the third quarter, and the NBA Cup group-stage game belonged to Los Angeles from there.
Luka Doncic scored 53 points: how the comeback happened
Portland controlled most of the first half. The Trail Blazers built a 16-point lead while the Lakers could not buy a basket from deep — Doncic himself missed his first five three-point attempts.
The momentum shifted in the final seconds of the half. Walker Kessler grabbed a Sidy Cissoko airball with six seconds left, handed the ball to Doncic, and set a screen. Doncic launched from the top of the opposite key and banked the 62-footer in as the buzzer sounded, cutting Portland’s lead to 60-53 at the break. It was only the Lakers’ fourth make from deep in 23 attempts to that point.
“I think it changes the whole energy, in the team and in the gym. I thought it was an important shot to make,” Doncic said afterward. “So that’s why I decided to make it.”
The third quarter belonged to him. Doncic scored 20 points in the period — outscoring Portland 20-15 by himself — as the Lakers ripped off a 17-0 run. A Ziaire Williams three-pointer gave Los Angeles a 71-68 lead with 4:23 left in the quarter, its first lead since the opening basket, and the Lakers took an 87-75 advantage into the fourth with Doncic already at 40 points.
Portland refused to go away. A 10-0 run pulled the Trail Blazers within 95-89 with 7:20 left, but back-to-back three-pointers from Jake LaRavia and Austin Reaves pushed the lead back to 103-91. The visitors got within 114-110 with 50.8 seconds left after Damian Lillard made two free throws, before Doncic sealed the win with a floater with 27.7 seconds remaining, moving past the 50-point mark. Doncic and Reaves combined to score 10 points in the final seconds.
Reaves finished with 25 points, and Kessler added 16 points and 12 rebounds. Deni Avdija led Portland with 22 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds, Lillard scored 22, Toumani Camara added 18, and Donovan Clingan had 17 points and 11 rebounds. The loss ended Portland’s three-game winning streak and was only its second defeat of the season, in the finale of a four-game road trip.
Doncic passes Jordan in the record book
The 53 points were a season high for Doncic and the 11th 50-point game of his career — his fourth as a Laker. He moved past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and into a tie with Allen Iverson for the 10th-most 50-point games in NBA history.
It was also his fourth consecutive game with at least 40 points, joining Elgin Baylor, Kobe Bryant and George Mikan as the only Lakers to do that in the regular season. He has now scored 40 or more six times in nine games this season, and seven straight games with at least 35 points, five rebounds, five assists and five three-pointers.
The bigger number is 361. That is how many points Doncic has scored through the Lakers’ first nine games, passing Michael Jordan’s 347 from the 1986-87 season for the most since the NBA-ABA merger, according to ESPN Research. Only Wilt Chamberlain has scored more through nine games — 472 points in 1962-63 and 455 in 1961-62.
Doncic’s season average now sits at 40.1 points per game, leading the NBA, along with 7.7 rebounds and 7.6 assists. No player has averaged 40 points over a full season since Chamberlain in 1962-63.
Analysis: the MVP conversation is real, and so is this Lakers team
Ten games into an 82-game season is far too early to hand out awards, and head coach JJ Redick said before the game that he does not get into MVP discussions until a team is at least 50 games in. But the chants inside Crypto.com Arena told their own story, and Doncic’s teammates are no longer surprised by nights like this one.
“He’s incredible to watch,” Kessler said. “He’s incredible to play alongside. He’s my MVP. I think it’s pretty clear right now.”
“At this point, it’s pretty normal for him,” LaRavia said of the buzzer-beater. “It’s high difficulty for a lot of players, but it’s pretty easy for him.”
Redick, who has previously called Doncic a supernova, was asked whether he was running out of superlatives for his star. “Sure. I’m gonna just sit around and we’ll gather one day, come up with more superlatives so I have more words ready,” he said sarcastically. “For now, I don’t have any words.”
The win moved the Lakers to 8-2 and first place in the Western Conference, with a fourth straight victory. It also evened their NBA Cup record at 1-1 after dropping their Cup opener against Golden State, and avenged a 136-129 home loss to Portland on Oct. 27.
Around the NBA: Spurs keep rolling
Friday’s other late game saw Victor Wembanyama score 30 points with 14 rebounds in just 26 minutes as the San Antonio Spurs beat the Sacramento Kings 124-109 for their seventh straight win. Wembanyama scored 20 of his 30 in the first half, two nights after his 52-point, 24-rebound game against Dallas. Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell and Dylan Harper each added 19 points for San Antonio, while the Kings fell to 1-8.
In Friday’s other big NBA Cup game, the Cavaliers spoiled LeBron James’ return to Cleveland with a 119-95 win over the 76ers.
What to watch next
The Lakers head out on the road, visiting the Detroit Pistons on Sunday at 6 p.m. ET before a Monday night game at Atlanta. Portland returns home to host San Antonio on Saturday — the same Spurs team that has now won seven in a row.
The question for the rest of the league is simple: if Doncic is doing this in November, what does the rest of the season look like?
Sources: Reuters; Associated Press; USA Today; New York Post.
