LeBron James joined a club of one on Tuesday, while Luka Dončić joined a club of four.
With 30 points and a Lakers career-high 15 assists, Luka Dončić became only the fourth player in Lakers history to post those totals in a single game in a 136-115 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. The other three: James, Magic Johnson and Jerry West. We’ll call that a solid group.
That performance included a stretch of three straight 3-pointers to set the tone in the first quarter.
It was once again the LeBron and Dončić (LeBrončić?) show, as Dončić’s co-star posted 34 points on 10-of-18 shooting, eight rebounds and six assists. Center Jaxson Hayes also had one of the best games of his Lakers career, scoring 19 points on a perfect 8-of-8 shooting plus 10 rebounds.
Dončić was two points away from tying his Lakers career high in points as well, and likely would have gotten it had L.A. not taken its foot off the gas in the fourth quarter. After a back-and-forth first half in which the Pelicans came back from down 15, the Lakers had little trouble running away from the short-handed unit in the second half.
It was the Lakers’ seventh straight win, pushing their record to 39-21 and keeping them in second place in the Western Conference. They have won 17 of their last 20 games, with a 6-2 record with Dončić in the lineup.
L.A. is about to enter a revealing stretch of their schedule, though, as they play the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets in their next five games, which will be mostly spent on the road.
