NBA News NBA News, Match Reports and Updates 
Luka Doncic is hooping like he intends to run away with the MVP trophy. Making a point by scoring more points to start a season — 361 in nine games — than anyone since Wilt Chamberlain scored 472 in 1962.
Generational scoring run or the new normal? Could this historic meteor shower be the standard?
Advertisement
“I feel like that,” Doncic said, adding he thinks he can maintain his current 40.1-points-per-game tear. “But as long as we win, I’m good.”
And if he’s this good when the playoffs roll around, this undeniable, brushing off elite defenders Toumani Camara and Jrue Holiday en route to 53 points in Friday’s 124-118 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, then the Lakers could totally go on a Luka Magical run and win it all.
But if Doncic is not this good, the Lakers aren’t 8-2 right now, and they’re not sitting in first in the Western Conference standings out of the gate … with 72 more games to go.
There’s ability, there’s inevitability, bankability.
Advertisement
Read more: Luka Doncic scores 53 as Lakers avenge loss to Trail Blazers
And then there’s sustainability.
The Lakers are going to need to employ some serious conservation measures to get this version of Doncic — whose seven consecutive 35-points or better games put him on par with Elgin Baylor and Kobe Bryant as the only Lakers to stack so many in regular-season history — to the starting line that matters.
They need to write to Santa Claus and ask for a serviceable backup center. They need Austin Reaves to really rock and roll with the units that don’t include Doncic — who has the highest plus-minus and the highest on/off rating in the NBA — and to keep his turnover tallies low. They need to not just beat but blow out bad teams, to give Doncic a fourth quarter off sometimes.
Advertisement
And they need coach JJ Redick — who boasted in September that the Lakers’ “naturally deeper roster” would result in a longer rotation — to trust the process.
Even if the amount of “my bad” from his backups costs the Lakers some regular-season wins, it will, on occasion, make more sense to punt than to go for it. Like when you’re readying a less-experienced,…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/swanson-luka-doncic-lead-lakers-113500460.html
Author :
Publish date : 2026-11-07 11:35:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
