LOS ANGELES \u2014 Luka Don\u010di\u0107 gave the Lakers a chance before halftime with a shot from beyond half court. In the third quarter, he helped turn that chance into control.<\/p>\n
Don\u010di\u0107 scored a season-high 53 points, including 20 in the third quarter, as the Lakers overcame a 16-point deficit to beat the Portland Trail Blazers 124-118 on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n
The Lakers improved to 8-2 with their fourth straight win, avenging their Oct. 27 loss to Portland and earning their first NBA Cup win of the season.<\/p>\n
It was Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s fourth 50-point regular-season game as a Laker and the 11th of his career.<\/p>\n
He has scored 361 points through his first nine games this season, the most since Wilt Chamberlain scored 472 (insane!) through nine games in 1962-63, according to the Lakers.<\/p>\n
Don\u010di\u0107 is now at an average of 40.1 points per game which ranks third in NBA history through a player\u2019s first nine games of a season, behind only Chamberlain\u2019s starts in 1962-63 (52.4) and 1961-62 (50.6), according to the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor now … I don\u2019t have any words,\u201d coach JJ Redick said of Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s historic scoring surge.<\/p>\n
Austin Reaves recovered from missing his first seven shots to finish with 25 points. Walker Kessler added 16 points and 12 rebounds, while Don\u010di\u0107 contributed five rebounds and five assists.<\/p>\n
The Lakers needed much of that production after an opening quarter in which they missed all 12 of their 3-point attempts. Portland made six of its 12 attempts from deep, building a 29-20 lead despite Don\u010di\u0107 supplying half of L.A.\u2019s points.<\/p>\n
Redick had called an early timeout with Portland ahead 10-4 and the Lakers shooting 2 for 12 overall. The deficit eventually reached 16 in the second quarter, with Reaves unable to find his first basket until a runner ended his 0-for-7 start.<\/p>\n
Still, Redick saw reasons to trust the offense.<\/p>\n
The shots began to fall toward the end of the second quarter that ended in Don\u010di\u0107’s longest bucket of the season.<\/p>\n
Don\u010di\u0107 banked in a heave from beyond half court at the buzzer (and I GOT IT!), cutting Portland\u2019s lead to 60-53. The Lakers entered halftime within seven despite shooting 4 for 23 from 3-point range.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was an important shot to make. So that\u2019s why I decided to make it,\u201d Don\u010di\u0107 said.<\/p>\n
He carried that momentum into the third quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Lakers used a 20-8 run to move ahead 73-68, with Don\u010di\u0107 scoring 11 points during that stretch. They went on to outscored Portland 34-15 in the period, taking an 87-75 lead into the fourth.<\/p>\n
Portland made another push, but Don\u010di\u0107 delivered a jumper in the lane with 28 seconds remaining to help protect the advantage.<\/p>\n
L.A. also created extra opportunities through its defense and work on the offensive glass. The Lakers forced 24 turnovers and collected 17 offensive rebounds, overcoming an 11-for-37 night from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n
Don\u010di\u0107 acknowledged feeling tired afterward, but his assessment of how he was holding up remained simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cFeeling great,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He was asked about sustaining his production every night and he kept the focus on the result.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as we win, I\u2019m good with whatever I do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Luka Don\u010di\u0107 gave the Lakers a chance before halftime with a shot from beyond half…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[1013,7,601,4500,1698,150,368,6,67,687,471,3967,1617,4536],"class_list":["post-878195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-portland-trail-blazers","tag-austin-reaves","tag-basketball","tag-blazers","tag-breaking-news","tag-la-lakers","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba","tag-news","tag-portland","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-portlandtrailblazers","tag-trail-blazers","tag-tst-los-angeles"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117574238394001008","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878195","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=878195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}