LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA — Luka Dončić scored 53 points and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Portland Trail Blazers 124-118 in an Emirates NBA Cup group-play game Friday night, his fourth straight game with at least 40 points.
Portland led 60-53 at halftime. Dončić took over the third quarter with 20 points on 6-of-12 shooting, the Lakers won the quarter 34-15, and Los Angeles led 87-75 going into the fourth. The Blazers got within six on a 10-0 run capped by Damian Lillard's fourth 3-pointer, but the Lakers held on and moved into first place in the Western Conference, according to NBA.com.
Dončić is the first Laker with four straight 40-point games since Kobe Bryant in January 2012. He has 361 points through nine games, an average of 40.1, and joins Wilt Chamberlain as the only players to average 40 or more through the first nine games of a season.
Nine games in, the only comparison left is Wilt.
Source: NBA.com
Drawn from public records; drafted with AI and edited by Peter Gorman before publication.
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