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\n Luka Doncic delivered a spectacular 44-point performance in just three quarters, leading the Lakers to a 128-117 victory over Indiana on Friday. His tenth 40-point game of the season puts him in exclusive company with Lakers legends Kobe Bryant, Elgin Baylor, and Jerry West.\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Luka Doncic delivered a masterful performance Friday night, dropping 44 points along with nine rebounds and three steals in just three quarters of play as the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Indiana Pacers 128-117.<\/p>\n
The superstar guard connected on seven three-pointers and achieved his tenth 40-point performance of the season, surpassing Minnesota\u2019s Anthony Edwards for the league lead. This milestone also placed Doncic among Lakers royalty, making him only the fourth player in franchise history to reach double digits in 40-point games during a single season. He joins Hall of Fame legends Kobe Bryant (who accomplished this feat four times), Elgin Baylor (three times), and Jerry West (three times).<\/p>\n
Doncic\u2019s offensive explosion proved crucial with LeBron James sidelined due to injuries to his left elbow and left foot. James sustained the elbow injury during a hard fall in Thursday\u2019s defeat against the Denver Nuggets.<\/p>\n
Austin Reaves contributed 19 points for Los Angeles, including 11 crucial fourth-quarter points before fouling out. The Lakers also received solid contributions from Luke Kennard with 15 points and seven rebounds off the bench, while Rui Hachimura chipped in 13 points and Marcus Smart added 11. The victory marked Los Angeles\u2019 fourth win in their last five contests.<\/p>\n
For Indiana, Pascal Siakam led the scoring effort with 26 points, but it wasn\u2019t enough to prevent the Pacers\u2019 eighth consecutive loss. The struggling team has now dropped five straight games by an average margin of 19.6 points.<\/p>\n
Andrew Nembhard contributed 17 points and eight assists for the Pacers, while Jay Huff scored 16 points. T.J. McConnell provided 10 points coming off the bench for Indiana.<\/p>\n
The Lakers dominated offensively, shooting an impressive 52.9% from the field and connecting on 17 of 37 three-point attempts. Los Angeles also played without Deandre Ayton due to a left knee issue.<\/p>\n
Indiana struggled from long range, making only 8 of 35 three-point shots despite shooting 46.9% overall from the field.<\/p>\n
Doncic set the tone early, going perfect from beyond the arc at 5-of-5 while pouring in 22 first-quarter points to help the Lakers establish a 35-27 lead.<\/p>\n
The Dallas native added seven more points in the second period, bringing his halftime total to 29 as Los Angeles extended their advantage to 64-51 at intermission.<\/p>\n
Doncic saved his best for the third quarter, scoring 15 points during the Lakers\u2019 explosive 35-point frame before calling it a night. He punctuated the period with a spectacular banked three-pointer with just 5.5 seconds remaining, giving Los Angeles a commanding 99-80 lead entering the final quarter.<\/p>\n
Indiana briefly showed signs of life early in the fourth, cutting the deficit to 103-89 following a three-pointer by Jarace Walker. However, Reaves responded with nine points during an 11-2 Lakers run that pushed the lead to 114-91 with 7:34 left on the clock. The margin reached as high as 24 points before the Pacers managed to trim the final score.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luka Doncic delivered a spectacular 44-point performance in just three quarters, leading the Lakers to a 128-117 victory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[80926,80927,7,80920,80928,80922,80923,80921,80924,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6,80925],"class_list":{"0":"post-644894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-102-3","9":"tag-102-3fm","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-fine-day","12":"tag-fine-day-102-3","13":"tag-fine-day-fm","14":"tag-fine-day-media","15":"tag-fine-day-radio","16":"tag-have-a-fine-day","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-la-lakers","19":"tag-lakers","20":"tag-lalakers","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","23":"tag-losangeles","24":"tag-losangeleslakers","25":"tag-nba","26":"tag-weller-radio"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116186749241831554","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}