Inside Lakers star Luka Doncic’s improbable 100 points in 25 hours 

MIAMI — As Luka Doncic sat down on the Lakers’ bench with 37.8 seconds left in the team’s eventual win over the Heat on Thursday night, with Doncic in the midst of his best scoring performance of his brief Lakers tenure, he had a brief conversation with starting center Deandre Ayton before taking a pause.

Sitting at 59 points at the time in what became a 60-point performance, his first with the Lakers and third of his career, Doncic soaked in the same environment inside of Kaseya Center that was chanting “M-V-P” for him just a couple of minutes ago as the Lakers and Heat awaited the decision of Miami’s challenge on a defensive foul called against Norman Powell (the challenge was unsuccessful). 

Another pause followed, with Doncic wrapping a white towel across his torso while looking down to his left side. He looked back up and wiped his face with the towel before looking back down and letting out an exhale.

What followed was a feeling that many of Doncic’s teammates, coaches and the rest of the Lakers’ traveling party could relate to.

“I’m tired as s—,” Doncic mouthed to himself before looking back up during a moment that was captured on the game’s broadcast. 

That moment captured the duality of Doncic and the Lakers’ previous 25 hours.

Because for most of Thursday, Doncic didn’t look like a man battling fatigue as he put on shotmaking masterclass that only the elite of the elite players in league history could: 18-of-30 shooting from the field, 9 of 17 on 3-pointers and 15 of 19 on free throws, with his final make at the charity stripe with 15 seconds left giving Doncic his 60th point to send the Lakers’ bench into a frenzy. 

“It was a superhero performance,” coach JJ Redick said. “He made big shots, he made tough shots. Made a lot of right reads. When he gets it going like that, it’s…some of it is you just kind of like ‘let him go.’ And his teammates felt that, they saw that. The shotmaking was unreal.”

But the circumstances Doncic and the Lakers faced entering Thursday weren’t the ones most would associate with a 60-point game. 

The Lakers were’t too far removed from their Wednesday night road win over the Rockets in Houston, with the game ending a little past 11 p.m. Central Time.

They had little time to waste. 

Or rest. 

They packed up their traveling party for a two-plus hour flight to Miami that involved losing an hour on the clock, arriving at their South Florida hotel just a little after 5 a.m. Eastern Time with a matchup against the team waiting for them in about 15 hours. 

And then came the uncertainty about who’d be available, with the Lakers releasing a status report Thursday afternoon saying that Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves were questionable for the second night of the back-to-back set before upgrading the star trio to available an hour before tipoff.

“Definitely a mental, a mental and physical toll,” James said. “Obviously, we got in at the time we got in, I don’t think anybody got much sleep. Just wanted to see how the body felt, how the mind felt once we all kind of got going. And decided to give it a go. We all decided to give it a go. That’s a big, gritty win for us on the road especially under [those] circumstances.”

And the reasoning for why the Lakers star trip played was simple. 

“To win,” Reaves said. “We’re trying to win.”

And while he hasn’t done it alone, Doncic has been the biggest catalyst for the Lakers’ season-best eight-game winning streak, which has vaulted them to third place in the Western Conference, and two games ahead of the No. 4 Timberwolves entering Friday.

“We would not be anywhere near the position we’re in without him having the season that he’s having,” Redick said. “He’s dominating right now.”

And the 25 hours between the start of Wednesday’s win over the Rockets and Thursday’s win over the Heat encapsulates the kind of roll Doncic is on. 

With 40 points against the Rockets on Wednesday and 60 against the Heat, Doncic scored 100 points in 25 hours across two games – seven away from the most points he’s scored in consecutive games (107) and just one away from the most he’s scored in a back-to-back set (101). 

“I mean, obviously you’re tired, but I think it was more mentally,” Doncic said. “Like JJ said before the game, ‘It’s a mental game.’ And that’s what it was. You just got to say to yourself you’re not tired and keep going.”

And no matter how tired, the Lakers will continue to go as far as Doncic takes them. 

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