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By Bryan Colbert Jr.
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Luka Doncic had missed his first five 3-point attempts Friday night when he got the ball in the backcourt with the first half about to expire. He banked it in from more than 60 feet away.
Seeing that shot go in was all he needed.
Doncic came out of the locker room for the second half firing, outscoring the Portland Trail Blazers by himself in the third quarter.
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Doncic finished with a season-high 53 points as the Los Angeles Lakers rallied from 16 down to beat Portland 124-118 at Crypto.com Arena.
Their fourth straight win moved the Lakers to 8-2 and into first place in the Western Conference, a half-game ahead of Houston, Oklahoma City and San Antonio.
The performance put Doncic alongside Wilt Chamberlain, making them the only players in league history to average at least 40 points through their first nine games of a season. Doncic has 361 points in nine appearances, an average of 40.1.
Friday also marked his fourth straight game with at least 40 points. The last Laker to do that was Kobe Bryant in January 2012.
Doncic added five rebounds, five assists and five 3-pointers against Portland, his seventh consecutive game with at least 35 points and five in each of those three categories.
Portland had already beaten the Lakers on this floor, 136-129 on Oct. 27. For much of the first half Friday, the rematch looked headed the same way.
Los Angeles missed its first 15 shots from beyond the arc before finding its range late in the second quarter. Doncic’s buzzer-beater cut Portland’s lead to 60-53.
The Lakers scored 17 straight points in the third quarter to turn a seven-point halftime deficit into an 87-75 lead heading into the fourth. Portland got within four in the final minute before Doncic dropped in a floater with 27.7 seconds left to push the lead back to six.
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Austin Reaves finished with 25 points, and Walker Kessler added 16 points and 12 rebounds.
Ten days after Portland beat them on the same floor, the Lakers handed the Blazers their second loss and evened their own NBA Cup record at 1-1.
Los Angeles heads to Detroit on Sunday riding a four-game winning streak and sitting atop the Western Conference at 8-2.
Doncic arrives with 361 points in nine games. He could score 39 against the Pistons and still finish his first 10 games averaging 40.
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