Luka Dončić cemented his status as the league's premier scorer with a 53-point performance in the Los Angeles Lakers' 124 to 118 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night. The Slovenian star outscored the entire opposing team in the third quarter and sealed the first half with a three-quarter-court buzzer-beater. He also contributed five rebounds and five assists to the box score, leading the Lakers to the top of the Western Conference standings with an 8-2 record.
With the season currently at 8-2, Dončić is pacing himself as the runaway MVP candidate. Some analysts suggest he could join Stephen Curry as the second unanimous winner in NBA history. While his high usage rate naturally inflates certain box score numbers, the sheer volume of his scoring output is unprecedented for this early in a campaign.
Dončić has now scored at least 35 points in seven consecutive games, making him only the third player in Lakers history to achieve this feat alongside Kobe Bryant and Elgin Baylor. He is also the fourth Laker to record four straight games with 40 or more points, joining a list that includes Bryant, Baylor, and George Mikan. Notably, legendary names such as LeBron James, Shaquille O'Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Magic Johnson are absent from these specific streaks.
The guard is also on the verge of breaking James Harden's NBA record for the most consecutive games with at least five made three-pointers. Dončić has hit that mark in seven straight contests and needs five more to surpass Harden's record of 12. His current average of six made threes per game puts him on pace to shatter Stephen Curry's single-season record of 402, provided he maintains this volume over the remainder of the season.
In terms of sheer scoring volume, Dončić is attempting 13.7 three-pointers per game, which would break Harden's previous record if sustained. Despite being a career 35% three-point shooter, he is currently shooting 41.9% from deep this season. His step-back three-pointers are particularly effective, with tracking data showing a 43% success rate on those specific attempts.
His scoring average of 40.1 points per game is the highest mark through the first nine games of a season since Wilt Chamberlain. The next closest player in history is Michael Jordan, who averaged 38.6 points in his best early-season stretch. Dončić is also on pace to record 16 games with 50 or more points, which would break Kobe Bryant's non-Chamberlain record of 10 in a single season.
Beyond scoring, Dončić is showing significant defensive improvement. The Lakers possess a 110.2 defensive rating when he is on the court, a top-10 mark in the league. He is tied for sixth in steals with 15 and leads the league in charges taken with four. Opponents are shooting just 32.3% against him, the best mark among players who guard at least 12 shots per game, a statistic that even outperforms Victor Wembanyama.
The impact on the team's overall performance is stark. The Lakers' offensive rating stands at 130.9 with Dončić on the floor, an NBA record high. When he sits, the offense drops to a 99.1 rating, which would rank as the worst in the league. The net result is a 203-point swing in the team's point differential between his on-court and off-court minutes, a metric that strongly supports his case for the Most Valuable Player award.
