Luka Doncic Scores 53 as Lakers Pay Back the Blazers

His 11th career 50-point game erased a 16-point Portland lead and gave the Lakers a fourth straight win, 124-118.

Luka Doncic missed his first five 3-pointers Friday night. Then he scored 53, according to the Associated Press recap carried by ABC News, which counted it as the 11th time he's reached 50 in his career and the fourth time since he became a Laker. TheSportsDB's feed has the final: Lakers 124, Portland Trail Blazers 118.

The whole team opened cold on the yellow NBA Cup court, missing its first 15 threes, AP reported, and Portland got out to a 16-point lead in the second quarter. Doncic answered with a 61-foot bank shot from the far free-throw circle at the halftime buzzer. Then he scored 20 in the third quarter, five more than all of Portland. A 17-0 run in that quarter erased the deficit.

He's now the fourth Laker to score 40 in four straight regular-season games, joining Elgin Baylor, Kobe Bryant and George Mikan. Only 101 regular-season games into his Lakers career, his 40-point nights now outnumber Mikan's, which puts him fifth on the franchise list.

Portland didn't go quietly. A 12-point Lakers lead shrank to four before Doncic's jumper in the lane with 28 seconds left settled it. The AP box had Austin Reaves with 25 for the Lakers, and 22 apiece for Portland's Deni Avdija and Damian Lillard. That's four straight wins for the Lakers, and payback for a 136-129 home loss to Portland on Oct. 27. Detroit's defense has to deal with him next, Sunday in Detroit.

Source: abcnews.com, retrieved November 7, 2026.