{"id":238718,"date":"2025-10-25T07:19:45","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T07:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/238718\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T07:19:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T07:19:45","slug":"lakers-doncic-scores-49-to-extend-sizzling-start-in-win-over-timberwolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/238718\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers&#8217; Doncic scores 49 to extend sizzling start in win over Timberwolves"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES \u2014 Luka Doncic scored 49 points and became the fourth player in NBA history to begin a season with back-to-back 40-point performances, leading the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/los-angeles-lakers\/\" class=\"sn-team-post-link\" target=\"_self\" data-team=\"los-angeles-lakers\" data-league=\"nba\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> to a 128-110 victory over the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/minnesota-timberwolves\/\" class=\"sn-team-post-link\" target=\"_self\" data-team=\"minnesota-timberwolves\" data-league=\"nba\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> on Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>Doncic followed his 43-point game in an opening-night loss to Golden State with his highest-scoring effort yet in a Lakers jersey, going 14 for 23 with five three-pointers while adding 11 rebounds and eight assists.<\/p>\n<p>The Slovenian superstar also made 16 of his 19 free throws, yet he missed his final two field goal attempts and a late free throw to fall just short of his eighth career 50-point game.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain and Anthony Davis have also started NBA seasons with a pair of 40-point games. Doncic was traded to LA for Davis last winter.<\/p>\n<p>Anthony Edwards scored 31 points and Julius Randle had 26 for Minnesota, which couldn&#8217;t slow the Lakers&#8217; offence in a rematch of last season&#8217;s first-round playoff series won in five games by the Wolves.<\/p>\n<p>Austin Reaves added 25 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds, while Rui Hachimura scored 23 and Deandre Ayton had 15 for the Lakers.<\/p>\n<p>LeBron James watched from the Lakers\u2019 bench while wearing the Arizona Wildcats jersey of his younger son, Bryce. The top scorer in NBA history is out until at least mid-November with sciatica.<\/p>\n<p>Doncic mildly injured his groin in the Lakers&#8217; opener, and he hurt his left hand in the opening moments against Minnesota, grabbing at it repeatedly while bent over in pain.<\/p>\n<p>He still scored 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting with four three-pointers in the first quarter, matching Kobe Bryant and Kyle Kuzma for the Lakers&#8217; most prolific opening quarter in the past 30 years.<\/p>\n<p>Doncic had 32 points by halftime, and he added seven quick points early in the fourth quarter as the Lakers pulled away by 20.<\/p>\n<p>Bronny James made his season debut for the Lakers, playing the final 3:14.<\/p>\n<p>Timberwolves: Host Indiana on Sunday night.<\/p>\n<p>Lakers: At Sacramento on Sunday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Luka Doncic scored 49 points and became the fourth player in NBA history to begin&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-238718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}