The NBA announced on Sunday that Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic has become the first player in league history to amass 400+ points and 100+ assists through the first 12 games of a new season.
“Luka Dončić in 12 games played this season:
414 PTS | 107 AST.
“He’s the FIRST PLAYER IN NBA HISTORY to have 400+ PTS and 100+ AST through 12 games,” the NBA announced on X.
Doncic, who has 414 points, 107 assists, 105 rebounds and 24 steals through 12 games, poured in 33 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists and three steals on Sunday, helping the Lakers to a 108-106 road victory over the Utah Jazz. With the win, the Lakers improved to 12-4, surpassing the Denver Nuggets for the No. 2 seed in the West.
On Pace for Career Year
In his first full season with the Lakers, Doncic is primed to have a career year.
Through 12 games, he’s averaging a career-high 34.5 points and 2.0 steals, to go with 8.8 rebounds and 8.9 assists. Interestingly, he’s also averaging a career-high 12.5 free-throw attempts per game, which is a result of Lakers head coach JJ Redick imploring him to be in attack mode — even more so than previous years.
Doncic’s shot attempts (22.7) are actually lower than his career-best 2023-24 campaign, when he averaged 33.9 points and finished third in MVP voting. However, his USG% has skyrocketed to 37.3, up four percentage points from last season. These metrics indicate Doncic will likely continue to get to the free-throw line as much as possible.
Luka Attacking the Rim
In the Lakers’ back-to-back wins over the Jazz, Doncic got to the charity stripe a combined 28 times, which helped Redick’s team dictate the pace. Jazz head coach Will Hardy was clearly not thrilled about the referees repeatedly sending Doncic to the line.
Doncic has been wise to get to the line, given his poor shooting efficiency. The Slovenian has shot 31.1% from three through the first 12 games. After Sunday’s win, Lakers head coach JJ Redick praised his team for eeking out tough wins on the road despite their ongoing shooting woes.
“Our togetherness is important, playing for each other, the bench spirit tonight was great,” Redick said, via The Athletic’s Dan Woike.
“I do think there’s something with this group where we just whatever the game requires that night, that’s what we’re going to do to try to put us in a position to win. We’ve had to, kind of strategy-wise, mix in a bunch of different things, and the guys have been bought into just, ‘Hey, this is what tonight requires.’
“Let’s go out there and try to execute that.”
However, LeBron James brushed off concerns about the shooting, expressing confidence that he and his teammates will fix their most significant issue.
“We’re not worried about it. We got too many good shooters. It won’t last.”
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