MEMPHIS, Tenn. — After Austin Reaves carried the Lakers as their solo star all week, Luka Doncic returned Friday to take the baton back with another 40-point performance in Los Angeles’ 117-112 win over the Memphis Grizzlies.
Doncic, who missed the previous three games with a sprained finger on his left hand and a lower left leg contusion that he thought might keep him out until at least Sunday, flew to Memphis separately to join the team Thursday and went on to pour in a game-high 44 points.
It was Doncic’s third straight 40-point game after scoring 43 on opening night against Golden State followed by 49 against Minnesota, becoming the only player in NBA history other than Wilt Chamberlain to top 40 points in three straight games to begin his season. (Chamberlain did it twice: seven straight games in 1962-63 and five straight in 1961-62).
“I mean, I feel great,” Doncic said when asked about being included in such rare company with the basketball legend. “But obviously, if we get a win, I feel even better. So that’s the whole point, trying to help the team to win. And sometimes it’s going to be scoring, sometimes other things.”
He did other things too, leading Los Angeles with 12 rebounds and six assists as the Lakers fought back from a 15-point second-half deficit to win their first NBA Cup group play game, but it was the scoring that was most impressive — especially because of the luminaries he joined.
Only Chamberlain, Doncic and Michael Jordan in 1986-87 scored 125 points or more in their first three games to start a season; Doncic has 136.
And by averaging 45.3 points in his first three games, Doncic became the first Lakers player since Kobe Bryant in 2007 to average 45 or more in any three-game span.
Doncic was asked if he could become the only player other than Chamberlain to average 40 for a season.
“That’s going to be tough,” Doncic said. “Sometimes they’re going to double me more. Sometimes I won’t be able to score that much. I had I think three or four shots that were crazy shots that I felt like doing, but they were terrible shots. … I’ve got to work on that. But that’s tough. I don’t know.”
When told that Reaves didn’t think it was crazy, saying after the Lakers’ home win over the Timberwolves that he thought 40 points per game was within Doncic’s reach, Doncic said with a smile, “Austin’s stupid.”
Reaves averaged 40 points on 50% shooting (41.4% from 3) with 10 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 2.3 steals in the three games that Doncic missed, with LeBron James (sciatica) also sidelined. After Friday’s win, he had more praise for Doncic, and a critique of himself.
“His ability to get us off to hot starts is big for us because, if you come out and he has 15 in the first, we’re going to score, I would assume, 30 [points],” Reaves said of Doncic, who leads the league in first-quarter scoring, averaging 13 points. “Unless everybody else is shooting bricks like I was tonight.”
Reaves started the game 2-for-9 but finished as the Lakers’ second-leading scorer with 21 points.
Los Angeles also got big contributions from Marcus Smart, who was in the starting lineup after a two-game absence because of a right quad injury and put up 12 points, four assists and two steals, and Jake LaRavia, who had 13 points, five rebounds and three steals against his former team.
Deandre Ayton had nine points on 4-for-6 shooting in the first half but didn’t play after halftime because of what coach JJ Redick called “middle back spasms.” Ayton spent the third quarter in the locker room trying to get loose and said he would have returned to the game in the fourth quarter if called upon, but Los Angeles was able to hold on without him.
Ayton said he expects to be available when the Lakers host the Miami Heat on Sunday.
That will be another opportunity for Doncic to score 40 and another chance for his teammates to find ways to describe what they are seeing.
“Fantasticness,” Smart said, making up his own word for what Doncic is doing this season. “It’s been great to watch.”