Luka Doncic Drops 40 Again as Lakers Beat Kings

Luka Doncic dropped another 40-piece, finishing with 40 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Sacramento Kings 116-103 on Wednesday. He hit six threes and made it three straight games with at least 40, his fourth 40-point night in the last five.

Doncic now has 308 points through his first eight games, becoming the first player since Michael Jordan in 1988 to score 300-plus through the opening eight of a season, per NBA.com Starting 5. Wilt Chamberlain and Rick Barry are the only other names on that short list.

A Streak Nobody Else Owns

The heater is not just the raw points. Doncic has now posted six straight games with 35-plus points, 5-plus rebounds, 5-plus assists and 5-plus threes, the longest such streak in NBA history. That is a different kind of pace than a one-night explosion, and it is the number that should worry every West defense on the schedule.

Los Angeles kept Sacramento at arm's length once Doncic got cooking. The Lakers needed the offense humming on a night when the Kings could not match the shot-making, and Doncic delivered the same answer he has been giving all of this young season. Forty points with nine boards and seven dimes is a full-game takeover, not a scoring binge that leaves teammates stranded.

Company With MJ, Wilt and Barry

Three hundred points through eight games puts Doncic next to Jordan's 1988 start and into a club with Chamberlain (three times) and Barry. The six-game 35/5/5/5 threes streak stands alone. Nobody else has strung that together.

For a Lakers team still sorting its early-season identity around a new centerpiece, that kind of scoring floor changes every game plan. Opponents already know the 40 is coming. Stopping the five threes and the playmaking at the same time is the problem Sacramento could not solve.

The Pace Keeps Rising

Four 40-point games in five nights is star territory even by Doncic's standards. Third straight 40 means the Kings were not a one-off victim. They were the latest stop on a heater that already has historical company, and the Lakers are riding every possession of it.

Los Angeles will keep feeding him. When your best player is rewriting opening-month history, you do not ask him to cool off. You ask everybody else to keep up and you take the 116-103 win that comes with it.

Smacktok pick lean: Lean higher on Doncic's made threes next game. He just stretched a six-game streak of 5-plus threes with another six against Sacramento.

Three straight 40s and a 308-point start through eight games is the Lakers' early-season story, and it is not slowing down.