Luka Dončić scored 53 as the Lakers won their fourth straight, beating the Portland Trail Blazers 124-118 on Friday night. The big scoring line makes it easy to say Los Angeles can win by giving the ball to Dončić and getting out of the way. The ten days before it argue against that.
The Scoring Has Become the Most Predictable Thing About This Team
Friday was Dončić’s fourth straight game with at least 40 points, and he has hit 40 six times in the nine games he has played. The streak had already carried him past Michael Jordan’s eight-game scoring mark before Friday added to it.
On Friday he took over exactly when the game was turning. He scored 20 points in the third quarter, outscoring the entire Blazers team by five during a frame Portland lost 34-15, then sealed a six-point win with a floater at 27.7 seconds.
The Same Scoring Lost the Same Matchup Ten Days Earlier
Compare this game with the last one against the same opponent. On Oct. 27, Dončić had 41 points on 12-for-22 shooting with only two turnovers, which was arguably a cleaner game than Friday’s 17-of-33. The Lakers still lost 136-129.
The difference was everything around him. Portland scored 19 points off Los Angeles’ 15 turnovers that night, and the Lakers committed 29 fouls, sending Portland to the line 41 times.
On Friday the superstar was roughly as good, and the other numbers changed. Los Angeles committed 11 turnovers while forcing the Blazers into 24, turning those into 28 points — against a team that came in averaging 17.7 turnovers per game of its own.
Those extra possessions are how the Lakers survived a cold start. They went 0 for 11 from three in the first quarter and trailed 29-20 after it, and Portland shot 19 of 43 from deep across the night.
Dončić Could Not Cover the Gaps When He Sat
While Dončić was on the bench, the Lakers watched a double-digit lead shrink to six inside the first five minutes of the fourth quarter. The comeback that built it needed more than one player.
The go-ahead three came from Ziaire Williams during a 17-0 run that turned a 68-61 deficit into a 78-68 lead. Austin Reaves added 25 and Walker Kessler contributed 16 points and 12 rebounds.
Judge the Run by the Turnovers, Not the Point Totals
Across these two games Dončić’s scoring stayed about the same — 41 in the loss, 53 in the win — and the gap in points was smaller than the gap in turnovers. What changed was whether the defense created extra possessions and stayed out of foul trouble.
That should change how this run is judged. Ten games is a small sample, and a 40-point scoring average is not something anyone sustains across a full season, so his scoring will probably come down. If the Lakers keep winning the turnover battle, they have more room there than their offense suggests.
There is an early test. The Lakers visit the Detroit Pistons on Sunday, and Dončić’s point total there won’t tell us much. The more useful numbers are the Lakers’ turnovers and the Pistons’ free-throw attempts.
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