Luka Doncic strives to continue his lava-hot start when the Los Angeles Lakers host the Miami Heat on Monday night.
Doncic has scored 226 points through his first six games of a season. Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain (twice) are the only others to score 225 or more points in their first six contests in NBA history.
Doncic was electric during Sunday’s 131-125 home win over the Toronto Raptors. He scored 45 points for his third 40-point effort of the season, collected a season-high 15 rebounds and matched his season best of eight 3-pointers. He also had a season-high five steals.
“I just want to win every game,” Doncic said afterward. “We came out aggressive.”
Doncic is averaging 43.8 points over his last four appearances and leads the NBA with a 37.7 overall average.
“Feels pretty normal. I mean we got to witness it for a month last year and it was like supernova,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said of Doncic. “It was loud. It feels loud right now.”
The last time the Lakers had a back-to-back, Doncic scored 41 points in a loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Oct. 27 and then was scratched the following day with back tightness and missed a victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.
Doncic is intent on being on the floor Monday.
“I got to get rest,” Doncic said. “Cold tub, massage, rest and see you tomorrow.”
Los Angeles led by as many as 26 on Sunday and was still up 15 with 84 seconds to go before the Raptors narrowed the margin to five with 43.7 seconds to play. Redick then inserted Doncic and Austin Reaves back into the game.
“I won’t make that mistake again,” Redick said. “I’ll leave the guys in. You gotta play till the final buzzer, and if guys are not ready to play, then I just won’t put them in.”
Now the Heat will take a swing at slowing Doncic.
“We’re just going to try and make him make difficult shots,” Miami star center Bam Adebayo said after Sunday’s practice. “Obviously, guys do that in this league. For us, just making him see double and think a little bit.”
Miami is opening a five-game road trip that wraps up against the Utah Jazz on Nov. 10.
The Heat have won consecutive games by double digits after losing their first four games of the season.
Giannis Antetokounmpo stood out in both. He had 24 points and 18 rebounds in a 129-117 road victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday and followed up with 31 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists for his 58th career triple-double in Friday’s 145-125 victory over the visiting Indiana Pacers. The latter contest was Miami’s first NBA Cup game.
Veteran Klay Thompson also stood out Friday with seven 3-pointers and a season-high 25 points. Thompson hit five treys in the third quarter while having his first big game since joining the Heat.
“When he gets on a roll like that, he is really tough to stop,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said of Thompson. “We’ve all seen it or been on the other end of it, but it was fun seeing it (Friday night) in a Miami Heat jersey.”
The Heat scored more than 30 points in each quarter — including 42 in the fourth — while easily handling the Pacers. Miami shot 58.1% from the field and made 18 of 40 3-point attempts during its top offensive performance of the young season.
“Guys are understanding what we’re trying to do,” Spoelstra said. “And it looked like and felt like us. We’re having fun out there playing to our strengths. Not necessarily like a (145)-point game, but this is kind of the flow and the feel that we thought we were having coming out of preseason.”
The Lakers won last season’s two matchups and have won three straight against Miami.
–Field Level Media
