Luka Dončić has officially arrived for the Los Angeles Lakers.
After a few slow games, Los Angeles got its first performance befitting all the hype that came with the former Dallas Mavericks star in a 123-100 win over the Denver Nuggets on Saturday. Dončić finished with 32 points on 10-of-22 shooting, 10 rebounds, seven assists and four steals.
“Finally felt like myself a little bit, so that’s why I was smiling the whole game,” Dončić told ESPN after the game.
He got 16 of those points in the first quarter, showing off the long-range, heat-check shots he was known for making in Dallas at an unnatural rate.
He also still had his playmaking acumen, finding LeBron James on a long outlet pass for an easy bucket.
It was a big night for the Lakers in general, as Dončić was one of four 20-point scorers alongside James, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura. On the defensive end, they did everything they could to limit opportunities for Nikola Jokić in the paint, and the result was only 12 points on 2-of-7 shooting for the three-time MVP, as well as 13 rebounds, 10 assists and six turnovers.
The Lakers never trailed in the game and led by as many as 26 points. Given how they have performed against the Nuggets in the past few years, that’s significant.
Entering Saturday, Dončić’s time with the Lakers hadn’t been an immediate success, though it’s also not like there should have been any significant concerns about this. He didn’t make his Lakers debut until a week after his trade from the Mavericks because he was still sidelined with a calf strain, and also missed the second leg of a back-to-back as part of the recovery process.
In the three games he did play, he averaged 14.7 points per game on .356 shooting (.208 from deep) plus 6.7 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 4.0 turnovers per game. Those numbers were all markedly worse than his Dallas days, but he was also a player coming off an injury, playing in an entirely new system as a typically ball-dominant player.
James and the Lakers weren’t worried, via the Associated Press:
“It’s his third game since Christmas, and it’s his third game with us,” James said. “He still doesn’t know all the plays. He doesn’t know all the defensive coverages, all the signals and things that we’ve built up since September. Obviously, we’re trying to fast-track it on the fly. He’s coming back from his injury. He’s getting back into form, so we’re working through it together.”
There was little reason not to expect Dončić to find his groove, and Saturday was the first step. He’s also still outperforming Anthony Davis, who hasn’t played since his Mavericks debut due to a adductor injury.
The win improved the Lakers’ record to 34-21, good for fifth place in the Western Conference and a half-game back from the fourth-place Houston Rockets. It was tough letting Davis go after winning a championship with him in 2020, but the trade has massively improved their title odds, from +4000 before the trade to +1400 entering Saturday.
If Dončić replicates his success Saturday on a regular basis, those odds will only go up.
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