Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic opened the season like a flamethrower, and now he’s in a club that basically belongs to Wilt Chamberlain. Per a note shared on X by analyst Keerthika Uthayakumar, the list of players to start a season with three straight 40-point games is Chamberlain in 1961, Chamberlain in 1962, and Doncic in 2025. That’s it.
The latest installment came in Friday’s NBA Cup group game, where the Lakers rallied past the Memphis Grizzlies. ESPN’s box shows the Lakers closing strong to seal a 117–112 road win, with Doncic powering the comeback. His line, 44 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists, carried Los Angeles through a choppy second quarter and into a dominant finish. It’s the exact brand of takeover basketball the Lakers envisioned when they reshaped the roster around him.
This isn’t empty-calorie scoring, either. Doncic has blended volume with control, punishing single coverage, hunting mismatches, and leveraging the threat of his step-back to create easy looks for cutters. The numbers back it up: ESPN’s player page has him averaging video-game figures to start 2025–26, with efficiency to match. When the help comes late, he’s spraying 30 footers; when it doesn’t come at all, he’s living at the rim or the line.
Finding your name next to Chamberlain is not normal business, and the Lakers needed every bit of it to steady the early schedule. Role players chipped in, enough stops, enough timely threes, but the headliner didn’t blink. The NBA’s own game page captured the swing: a rough first half, then Los Angeles methodically flipped the script as Doncic controlled tempo and shot diet.
It’s only October, sure. But three straight 40s to open the year, and a statement road win, set a tone. If this is the baseline, the Lakers’ ceiling rises with it.
