Luka Doncic’s historic 6-game performance puts him next to MJ

On Wednesday evening, the Los Angeles Lakers got back into the win column as they closed out their East Coast swing with a road win over the Indiana Pacers. Although the game came closer than necessary down the stretch, there was still a solid performance from the Lakers, led by Luka Doncic, who scored 43 points in the game.

Doncic has been on an absolute heater for the Lakers in recent weeks, and following the Pacers’ win, ESPN NBA insider Dave McMenamin revealed the latest piece of history the star has accomplished.

“Luka Doncic is the first player to average 40 points over a six-game span since Michael Jordan in 1986,” McMenamin reported on Twitter, citing a report by ESPN’s Matt Williams.

In fact, Doncic has been obliterating the competition the last few games for the Lakers, consistently troubling opposing defenses with his step-back threes and other highlight plays.

Los Angeles recently saw its nine-game winning streak end at the hands of the Detroit Pistons earlier this week, but they bounced back in solid fashion on Wednesday, blowing a 20-point lead in the first quarter and eventually allowing Indiana to get back into the game, but things slowly wore off.

The Lakers are now 47-26 on the season, which is good for third place in the Western Conference playoff picture, a spot they are currently in the running for. Los Angeles will now return home for a much easier schedule, with their next two games against the Brooklyn Nets and Washington Wizards.

The Nets game is scheduled to begin at 10:30 PM ET on Friday from Crypto.com Arena.


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Mitch Johnson gets real after brutal 6-game challenge

The San Antonio Spurs followed up with a rodeo road trip that matched the best edition of their annual jaunt since their inception in 2003, with a home stand that was almost as impressive. Clutchpoints were discussed in detail with head coach Mitch Johnson.

“You feel the intensity and the competitiveness. The teams that you’re talking about and the urgency that a lot of them have, I think it’s been really good for us to go through these games and find out about other teams and find out about ourselves.”

Whichever team Johnson’s group plays during its six games at the Frost Bank Center is a postseason contender that will likely at least make the play-ins. Three of those teams are widely considered to be among the best in the NBA.

Spurs role as postseason contender

San Antonio began their home games with a win against the Detroit Pistons, entering the night tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder for the fewest losses in the league. The very next night, the Spurs overcame a 25-point deficit to defeat a Portland Trail Blazers unit that is in eighth place in the Western Conference.

The Silver and Black then defeated the Houston Rockets by 25 points, who were in third place in the West at the time. Next came the Boston Celtics. Like Houston, Boston is in third place in its conference, and like the Celtics, the Rockets fell. Two nights later, without Victor Wembanyama, the Alamo City welcomed a Denver Nuggets team that was in fourth place in the West. This would prove to be the only game of six that the Spurs would lose as after Wembley recovered from an ankle injury, they defeated a Charlotte Hornets team that is in 10th place in the East. Loss-wise, Charlotte is five losses ahead of that last spot in the conference play-in spot.

“We’ve had to participate in a lot of different types of games, whether it’s getting a little open and covering a lot of distance defensively, matching some physicality in a lot of different ways, execution late in the game, seeing different ways for guys to defend us,” Johnson said of ClutchPoints’ tenure.

San Antonio held Charlotte without a field goal for more than five minutes in the fourth quarter, defeating the Hornets 115–102 to close the home stand.

“I thought we settled in. Had a little ups and downs in the third quarter, got open a little bit, and it’s hard to save them when the game is like that.” Johnson said.

The Spurs’ first-year head coach added, “I thought we did a really good job of fixing our defense, even if it wasn’t weak.” “It’s always easy to get organized by moving away from artificial things, but I thought we did a good job of getting set up, staying connected and getting them ready to play through their counters; or just the beginning shooters trying to get a look because they’re very good at seeing those guys and progressing from that to the next guys.”

Going 5-1 after an 8-1 record during the Rodeo Road Trip to include two ‘home’ games in Austin gives the Spurs a 49-18 mark for the season. Johnson hopes it will serve his championship contender well.

“Hopefully all of these experiences are lessons that we will turn into knowledge and wisdom as we move forward.”


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