With his team in need of a boost after falling behind by 18 points during the first quarter on Sunday in a matinee matchup with the Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic transformed into a showman and put on a show to lift the squad to a 3-0 start to the season.
Trailing 47-29 at the end of the first quarter, the Lakers (3-0) turned to their unquestioned leader. Doncic took the team on a ride, clinging to his superhero cape, sinking a 3-pointer to send the Lakers into halftime up by three, 74-71, and finishing the first half with 25 points.
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Doncic didn’t stop there, finishing with 52 points, eight rebounds, 10 assists and two steals in a 132-123 road win, connecting on 17-of-30 shooting from the field and 8-for-18 from three-point range in just over 38 minutes of work. The performance was just the latest in Doncic’s theatrical history, according to Lakers coach JJ Redick.
“You know, I think for him in particular, when he’s in the flow state, he gets into like ‘Showman Mode.’ He’s on stage performing, and it’s always really fun to watch,” Redick said of Doncic’s performance.
“He’s always in ‘Showman Mode,'” teammate Austin Reaves said, who contributed 29 points in the win. “I think he’s always ready to get a bucket. So, knowing that as a teammate, we just let him do him, and we’re going to benefit from it as a team.”
The Lakers gave up 16 second-chance points while allowing Utah to grab six offensive rebounds in the first quarter. Meanwhile, Reaves went scoreless in the first quarter before tallying 15 points in the second quarter to power the comeback. In his return to Utah after joining the Lakers in a sign-and-trade this summer, center Walker Kessler was held to two points, seven rebounds and a block. That made Doncic’s heroics even more needed.
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Doncic eclipsed 3,000 regular-season points as a Laker in the win, needing just 95 games to do so and becoming the fastest to reach the mark in franchise history. He breaks Kareem Abdul-Jabbar‘s previous mark of 109 games, which was set during the 1975-76 and 1976-77 seasons.
