Luka Dončić scored 40 points in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 116-103 win over the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday, Nov. 4, pushing his total to 308 points through his first eight games of the season — the most by any player through eight games since Michael Jordan scored 303 in 1988-89. Dončić shot 11-of-23 from the field, including 6-of-13 from three, and added nine rebounds and seven assists.
Only Wilt Chamberlain has opened a season faster. Chamberlain topped 300 points through eight games three times, with a high of 418 in 1962-63. Dončić is averaging 38.5 points a game, and the 40-point night was his third straight 40-point performance and his fifth in six outings.
It also extended his streak of 35-plus-point games to six in a row. In each of those six games he posted at least 35 points, five rebounds, five assists and five 3-pointers.
A Real Streak, Not One Hot Night Against a Bad Team
The Kings are 1-7 and have not won at home this season, so this particular box score deserves that caveat. The streak around it does not depend on soft opponents.
The six-game run spans Utah (52 points), Portland (41), Golden State (37), Toronto (45), Miami (42) and Sacramento (40) — a 6-1 Portland team and a 6-3 Golden State team among them. That breadth is what separates this from a hot shooting week: a sustained usage spike following LeBron James’s departure rather than a run of favorable matchups.
The Lakers Return Home to Open NBA Cup Play
Los Angeles, 7-2, hosts the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday, Nov. 6, in an NBA Cup group-stage game at Crypto.com Arena. Portland enters at 6-1, and the game is the first test of whether Dončić extends the run to a seventh straight 35-point outing.
Source: Sky Sports
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