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Right out of the gate, he lit up the scoreboard with 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting in the first quarter. That scoring burst set the tone as the Lakers stormed ahead 46-29. Denver never stood a chance. L.A. stretched the lead to 30 at one point and never looked back, cruising to a wire-to-wire victory that evened the season series at two apiece.
As the Lakers are wrapping up a brutal six-game, eight-day grind tonight,they’ll have to do it without Doncic. He’s still nursing that sprained right ankle, meaning he won’t be on the floor against the Bucks, according to ESPN‘s Dave McMenamin.
The Lakers are about to wrap up a grueling stretch that no other team in the league has had to endure—six games crammed into just eight days. Blame the January wildfires in L.A. for that, which forced a postponed matchup against the Spurs to be squeezed into an already packed schedule.
They’ve handled it fairly well, going 3-2 so far. Their newest star Doncic sat out one of those games, a tough 131-126 loss to Denver last week, as he dealt with a sprained ankle and managed a calf issue. Despite the bumps in the road, L.A. has held firm as the third seed in the West with a 43-25 record over 68 games.
And right now? They’re rolling. Three straight wins and counting. After taking on Milwaukee, they’ll get a breather before hosting the Bulls on Saturday night.
Doncic reaches milestone as Lakers defeat Nuggets
Luka Doncic scored 31 points as the Los Angeles Lakers eased to a 120-108 home win against the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference.
The 26-year-old Slovenian bagged 21 points in the first quarter alone and went on to reach the 200th 30-point game of his career while also recording nine rebounds and seven assists.
Austin Reaves added 22 points for the Lakers, who were without the injured LeBron James and Rui Hachimura.
The Nuggets, who missed Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray because of injuries, failed to recover after trailing 46-29 at the end of the first quarter and saw the Lakers leapfrog them by moving into third place in the standings.
Doncic, who joined the Lakers from the Dallas Mavericks in February, has now scored 30 points or more in eight of his 16 games since the move.
“Like I always say, every day gets better,” Doncic told ESPN after the win.
“That’s three wins in a row now so we’ve got to just keep it going.
“We go game-by-game because if you think too far in the future maybe you forget about the next game. We know the [standings] are tight but we’ve just got to try and win every game.”
The Lakers’ 46-point first quarter was their highest-scoring quarter of the season, while Doncic’s 21 points was his most points in any quarter for the Lakers.
In the Eastern Conference, the Cleveland Cavaliers remain top but fell to a 123-119 loss to the Sacramento Kings – their third straight defeat.
DeMar DeRozan added 27 points for the Kings against the Cavaliers, who had seen their franchise record 16-game winning streak snapped by the Orlando Magic at the weekend.
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