JJ Redick compared Luka Doncic’s scoring run to his March surge that included a 60-point game, after Doncic scored 40 in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 116-103 win over the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night.
Doncic has scored at least 35 in six straight games. He has 308 points in eight games, the first player to top 300 through his first eight games of a season since Michael Jordan in 1988-89.
Asked if this is as hot as he has seen Doncic, Redick pointed to “the entire month of March last year.”
He recalled a back-to-back when Doncic “closed out Houston” and then “we went to Miami and got in at 4 a.m. and he had a 60 ball.” Doncic scored 60 in a 134-126 win at Miami on March 19, the most points ever scored against the Heat, per Field Level Media.
“That stretch was pretty magical from him,” Redick said. “But he’s playing great right now.”
Redick: Doncic hit shots ‘five guys in the NBA’ can make
The Lakers broke the game open late in the second quarter, when Doncic scored 11 straight points, including three straight 3-pointers, to turn a tight game into a 57-48 lead.
“He comes down and, you know, he makes like three shots in a row that there’s five guys in the NBA they can make, and all of a sudden the tie ball game is a nine, 10-point lead,” Redick said. “The team feeds off that too.”
Doncic shot 11 of 23, made six 3-pointers and went 12 of 13 at the free-throw line. He added nine rebounds and seven assists.
Redick said a lighter ballhandling load has helped. “He’s doing a great job of just, you know, playing off the ball,” he said. “We’re trying to set off-ball screens for him. Other guys are handling.”
“That workload from bringing the ball up against pressure every single possession, it’s just not there right now,” Redick said. “That’s very intentional on our part.”
Defense after a flat start
Sacramento scored 16 points before Redick’s early timeout. The Kings scored 87 the rest of the way.
“Ideally, you can get a stop without the other team shooting the ball,” Redick said.
He cited a lesson from Stan Van Gundy: if 10 players each make one “my bad” mistake, “that’s 10 mistakes. That could be 20 points. That could be 30 points.”
“As we grow and we become hopefully a great basketball team, we’re going to limit those game plan errors,” Redick said. “The effort and the intent to execute I think is really high.”
The Lakers went 34 of 38 at the free-throw line. Redick said the team is “a more dynamic team when we can touch the paint,” naming Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton, Austin Reaves and Doncic as drivers. Reaves scored 21.
He said the game felt “choppy,” with Sacramento shooting 28 free throws. “Free throws are essentially a dead ball,” Redick said. “Playing off a dead ball is different than playing in that sort of flow.”
The Lakers (7-2) host Portland in an NBA Cup game Friday at 10 p.m. ET on Prime Video. The Trail Blazers beat them 136-129 on Oct. 27 despite 41 points from Doncic.
