Lakers coach JJ Redick said after Friday’s win over the Portland Trail Blazers that he had no superlatives left to describe Luka Dončić. “I’m gonna sit around and we’ll gather one day and come up with more superlatives so I have more words,” Redick told reporters. “But for now, I don’t have words.”
The comment came after Dončić scored 53 points in a 124-118 win at Crypto.com Arena, hitting a key jumper in the lane with 28 seconds to play. The win moved Los Angeles to 8-2, the best record in the Western Conference, and pushed his scoring average to 40.1 points through his first nine games.
It was Dončić’s 11th career 50-point game and his fourth with the Lakers. He joined Elgin Baylor, Kobe Bryant and George Mikan as the only Lakers to score 40 points in four straight regular-season games, and passed Mikan for the fifth-most 40-point games in franchise history, after 101 regular-season games with Los Angeles.
Dončić scored 20 points in the third quarter alone, outscoring Portland 20-15 in the period. He had also banked in a 61-footer from the opposite free-throw circle at the halftime buzzer after missing his first five three-point attempts.
A Coach Known for Preparation, Caught Without an Answer
Redick has built a reputation this season for detailed, prepared answers at the podium, which is what made his inability to characterize Dončić’s performance notable on its own terms. The moment says less about Dončić’s talent, which the box score states plainly, than about how far his individual numbers have outpaced the vocabulary coaches normally use for an excellent game.
A 40-point scoring average has become difficult even for the people closest to it to describe in real time. The locker room produced its own version of that the same night, when Ziaire Williams ran up to congratulate Dončić and reached Austin Reaves instead.
The Average Faces a Back-to-Back Starting Sunday
The Lakers play at the Detroit Pistons on Sunday afternoon and at the Atlanta Hawks on Monday, the first back-to-back of a road stretch. Dončić is listed as questionable for the Detroit game with low back tightness.
Source: Matthew Valento of Lakers Nation
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