Maybe while watching him grill the Toronto Raptors on Sunday night to the tune of 45 points on 12-of-23 shooting with eight 3-pointers, you found yourself thinking, “Man, Luka Dončić is on an all-time heater to start the season.”
Well, if it seems that way, it’s because it’s very, very a lot is:
“You need three guys to guard him,” Lakers big man Sandro Mamukelashvili said, according to ESPN. “I feel like every time Luka plays, it’s over 35 (points).”
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It’s pretty close, Mamu. That’s actually four times in six games this season. (The final four, if you’re keeping score.)
Much of the postgame commentary on Dončić’s performance in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 131-125 win over the Raptors focused on his defensive work: on the 15 defensive rebounds he pulled down, on the five steals he grabbed and six deflections he racked up, on the charges he took to commit offensive fouls and give the Lakers another possession. It certainly matters; Dončić is no stranger to catching hell for lack of defensive effort on the sport’s biggest stage, and these Lakers will need him to perform at his best on that end if they hope to get back to that point themselves.
“We rely a lot on our offense,” Lakers center Walker Kessler told reporters after a loss to the Portland Trail Blazers last week. “And we have a very, very good offense and a lot of good scorers. But that’s not going to be the only thing that allows us to win a championship here.”
It won’t. But that will be the main thing. Because what the Lakers did, after ending the somewhat awkward stint between stations that has extended since Dončić arrived at the 2025 trade deadline and the team bid farewell to LeBron James this summer, was build a Luka Dončić team. And if there’s one thing Luka Dončić’s team will do, it’s score a full load of points – the lion’s share coming from No. 77’s fingertips.
Sunday’s monstrous performance against the Raptors made Dončić just the second player since the NBA began tracking steals in 1973 to score 45 points, grab 15 rebounds, dish out 5 assists and grab 5 steals in a single game – joining, as luck would have it, Anthony Davis, the man the Lakers traded to Dallas for Dončić’s services nearly two years ago. It was his 24th career 45-point game, tying George Gervin for 10th on the all-time list, and his 11th career game with 45 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists – more than anyone except Laker legends Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor.
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Dončić has worn a Lakers uniform six times this season; three times he exceeded 40 points. He now averages more than a point per minute – a historic offensive attack rate that no one has surpassed since Wilt did it 65 years ago.
This is not normal. Luka just makes it seem that way.
“It feels like a supernova, but it also feels normal,” Lakers head coach JJ Redick told reporters after Sunday’s win. “We live on a spaceship and we go at the speed of light at all times when it’s on the ground.”
Dončić opened the season looking like the best driver in the galaxy, leading the NBA with 37.7 points per game, 8.1 points more than second-place Tyrese Maxey. That 8.1-point gap between first and second place is about the same as the gap between Maxey and Indiana Pacers forward Pascal Siakam, whose 21.4 points per game ranks 28 in the NBA.
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Dončić leads the NBA in field goals made per game, 3-pointers made and attempted per game And in free throws made and attempted per game. He converts on all of these looks at rates near or equal to career bests, shooting 78% at the rim, 53% from floater range, 47% on long-2 mid looks, 90% from the free throw line and 43.2% from long range. He is also tied for ninth in the NBA in assists, with 7.3 dimes per game, making him one of two players in the top 10 in both categories, alongside Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics. Combine the points Dončić generates by placing his big men at the rim and his shooters on the perimeter with those he scores himself, and he creates 55.3 attack points for the Lakers per game – most in the NBA, according to Databallr.
Including plays where he shoots or passes to a shooting teammate, Dončić’s pick-and-rolls produce 1.18 points per play, the third-highest mark among players who have executed at least 50 pick-and-rolls, according to Synergy Sports Technology tracking. His isolations generate 1.22 points per possession – fifth best among players with at least 20 one-on-one trips. When he orchestrates from the post, the Lakers score 1.36 points per trip – fourth among players who recorded at least 10 of these games.
Add it all up, and Los Angeles’ offense has been a buzzkill with Luka at the helm. The Lakers scored 130.7 points per 100 non-waste possessions in Dončić’s minutes; For comparison, the league-leading Rockets’ offense averages 122.1. They shoot the ball from cover from everywhere with him on the floor: 80% at the rim, 58% from mid-range and 43% from 3-point range.
They were elite in the half court, with Dončić pushing, pushing and bending coverages until they cracked. They’ve been even better in transition, where Dončić’s combination of excellent defensive rebounding for a wing and perpetual eye scanning for forward shot opportunities allows Los Angeles to break out and find easy baskets:
“When he does it, it’s like, pick your poison, because he can take any shot,” Redick said. “And then you start putting two on the ball, and everyone benefits. He’s a great offensive engine.”
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That engine is firing on all cylinders to start the season, helping the Lakers get to 5-2 behind the NBA’s No. 3 offense, Dončić playing like an MVP favorite — and getting the help he needs from the Lakers’ other centerpieces.
Second banana Austin Reaves averages 23 points and five assists per game on 52/40/88 shooting. New center Kessler holds up his end of the bargain, shooting a league-best 75.4% from the field, averaging 10 rebounds and 3 blocks per game, and holding opponents to a microscopic 41.3% at the rim while he’s the closest defender; that’s the best mark of any domestic deterrent for dealing with at least 25 close-range fire, according to Second Spectrum tracking.
In total, the Lakers have outscored their opponents by 84 points in 126 minutes with Dončić, Reaves, and Kessler on the court together – the best point differential among any three-man unit in the league thus far – and their core teams have been largely depleted, with a number of role players (Mamukelashvili, Ziaire Williams, Matisse Thybulle, et al.) providing the right kind of production and filling the gaps around that price point high, high power core.
The spaceship could however, there was some turbulence. The Lakers have played one of the easiest schedules in the league thus far; three of their five wins came against the Clippers and Jazz. They are also outperforming their expected field goal percentage to a greater degree than any other team in the league, according to several shot quality measures.
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If those red-hot collective shots normalize — and if the ball security issues that put Los Angeles 28th in team turnover percentage, with Dončić and Reaves ranking first and second in the league in total coughs — then the Lakers could see some regression… especially if, you know, Luka doesn’t continue to average 38 points per game on Prime Steph’s shooting and Prime Harden’s usage for a full season.
Note: Luka never went to the basket less. His 18 drives per game are the third lowest average since entering the NBA and a career low. 9% of his shot attempts came to the rim, according to Cleaning the Glass. He balanced that by hitting more than half of his 3-point attempts for the first time in his career, which is a really good idea when you make them; What happens, though, if these pullbacks don’t pay off at a rate of 43%?
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If and when that happens, some of these other shortcomings – the hole at power forward, the lack of another viable ball handler to help Reaves support the offense when Dončić is resting, the concerning lack of rebounding and interior weight when Kessler is off the floor, etc. – could become more blatant. For now, though, the Lakers are off to a generally half-full start: a top-three offense with just-below-average defense, outscoring their opponents by 7.5 points per 100 (a 58-win pace), with Dončić looking almost like the best player on the court every time he sets foot on it, which somehow makes the routine seem obscene.
It doesn’t seem possible that a spaceship like these Lakers could keep moving at the speed of light without eventually slowing down. But that’s the problem with superstars like Dončić: When they get going, the boundaries of physics and history and even our imaginations can seem to blur.
“Every great, great player that has ever played has also been in the 1% competitor level,” Lakers assistant coach Greg St. Jean recently told Thuc Nhi Nguyen of the Los Angeles Times. “They’ve always been the guy who can inspire the players around him and be able to do things that don’t even seem possible. And he does it every night.”
Gn sports
