LOS ANGELES — Lakers coach JJ Redick, emulating Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd, knew that his team’s best defense was going to stem from “good offense” against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
And Redick got more than just “good offense” from his team on Friday night – he got a great offense led by a historic performance from Luka Doncic in the Lakers’ first win of the season.
Doncic scored 49 points in the Lakers’ 128-110 victory over the Timberwolves, becoming the first player in franchise history and the fourth in NBA history to open a season with back-to-back 40-point games after scoring 43 in Tuesday’s season-opening loss to the Golden State Warriors.
He shot 14 for 23 from the field, including 5 for 12 from 3-point range, and 16 for 19 on free throws, to go along with 11 rebounds and eight assists.
Doncic was serenaded by “M-V-P” chants throughout the entire game after scoring 23 points in the opening quarter – tying late franchise legend Kobe Bryant and Kyle Kuzma for the most points in a first quarter in Lakers history since the 1996-97 season.
The 26-year-old Slovenian star joined Anthony Davis (2016-17), Michael Jordan (1986-87) and Wilt Chamberlain (1961-62 and 1962-63) as the only players in league history to score at least 40 points in consecutive games to open a season.
Doncic’s combined 92 points in the season’s first two games are a franchise record, besting the 81 points late franchise icon Jerry West scored in the first two games of the 1969-70 season, and the fourth-most in league history behind Chamberlain (106 – 1962-63; 105 – 1961-62) and Davis (95 – 2016-17).
Doncic’s scoring total on Friday was the most since the Lakers acquired him from the Mavericks in early February.
But unlike Tuesday, when Doncic and Austin Reaves carried the offense, the Lakers’ offense hummed in a way that they showed flashes of during the preseason but never sustained for prolonged stretches.
Reaves not only added 25 points (9-for-15 shooting), 11 assists and seven rebounds, but Rui Hachimura bounced back from a quiet offensive performance on Tuesday.
Hachimura finished with 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting, throwing down multiple alley-oops during a third quarter the Laker won 40-31, turning around their woes coming out of halftime.
Deandre Ayton scored 15 points (7-of-11 shooting) and grabbed eight rebounds for a Lakers team that shot 59.2% from the field (45 for 76) and 41.4% from behind the arc (12 for 29).
Anthony Edwards scored 31 points and Julius Randle had 26 for Minnesota in a rematch of last season’s first-round playoff series won in five games by the Wolves.
More to come on this story.