Luka Doncic Drops 45 as Lakers Hold Off Raptors

Luka Doncic buried eight 3-pointers on his way to 45 points, a season-high 15 rebounds, six assists and five steals as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Toronto Raptors 131-125 on Sunday night at Crypto.com Arena, the AP reported. He had 16 points with four 3s in the first quarter alone.

That is four straight games with at least 37 points for Doncic, who keeps stretching his early lead in the NBA scoring race. The Lakers move to 5-2 and bounce back nicely from Friday's loss at Golden State, where they blew a 25-point lead. Toronto drops to 3-3 and has lost three of four.

Doncic Did It All, Again

Doncic already had 37 points through three quarters. He shot 8 of 12 from deep and 13 of 13 at the line. It was his 20th game of 40-plus points in 98 regular-season games with the Lakers, and his second with at least 40 points, 10 rebounds and five steals in purple and gold. No other Laker has hit all three of those marks in a game since the 1982-83 season.

The help came from the usual spots. Austin Reaves scored 19 and Walker Kessler was perfect from the floor, going 6 for 6 for 16 points with 15 rebounds and three blocks.

A Blowout That Got Weird Late

This looked over by the end of the third quarter. The Lakers led 102-76 with 90 seconds left in the third. The Raptors trimmed it to single digits before Doncic and Reaves sparked a quick 9-1 run to push it back out.

Then things got interesting. The Lakers pulled their starters with 1:43 to play, and the Toronto reserves scored 11 points in 40 seconds to make it 125-120. Doncic, Reaves and Kessler had to check back in to close it.

Scottie Barnes led Toronto with 29 points and RJ Barrett added 22 points and 10 rebounds. Jamison Battle chipped in 20 off the bench. The Raptors are still without Kawhi Leonard, who missed his fourth straight game with a knee injury.

One more note for Lakers fans: first-round pick Cameron Carr made his NBA debut in the final 1:43 after missing the first six games with an oblique injury.

Up Next and the Smacktok Lean

No rest for anyone. The Lakers host the Heat on Monday at 7 PM PT, while the Raptors head across town to face the Clippers at Intuit Dome at the same time, with Leonard still out.

Our Smacktok lean: Doncic has scored at least 37 in four straight games and is getting all the touches he wants, so we'd lean higher on his points against Miami.