Luka Doncic scored 53 points and the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 124-118 in an NBA Cup game on Friday night.
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Luka Doncic scored 53 points and provided a go-ahead-like late finish to lift the Los Angeles Lakers to a 124-118 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night.
Doncic hit a key jumper in the lane with 28 seconds remaining and also contributed five assists and five rebounds. The total marked his 11th career 50-point game and his fourth such game with Los Angeles, helping the Lakers win their fourth straight game after leading late.
Austin Reaves scored 25 points for the Lakers, while Walker Kessler added 16 points and 12 rebounds. With the Lakers’ late lead slipping to four, Doncic and Reaves combined to score 10 points in the final seconds to preserve the win.
Portland got contributions from Deni Avdija, who finished with 22 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds, while Damian Lillard also scored 22 points. The Trail Blazers lost for only the second time this season as they concluded a four-game road trip.
The Lakers trailed by 16 in the second quarter before turning the game around with a 32-11 run early in the fourth that put them ahead by 16. Portland rallied repeatedly to get within four points, but could not make the final push.
Doncic scored 20 points in the third quarter alone, taking his total to 40, and the game featured a 17-point run by Los Angeles that included 17 consecutive points at one stretch. The Lakers also went cold early from beyond the arc, missing their first 15 3-point attempts, and Doncic missed his first five 3-point tries before sinking a 61-foot shot at the halftime buzzer.
The Lakers avenged a 136-129 home loss to Portland on Oct. 27 with this NBA Cup victory. Doncic also joined Elgin Baylor, Kobe Bryant and George Mikan as the only Lakers to score 40 points in four straight regular-season games, and he passed Mikan for the fifth-most 40-point games in Lakers history.
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