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Dave McMenaminDec 19, 2025, 02:36 AM ET<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>Lakers and NBA reporter for ESPN. SALT LAKE CITY — After posting a stat line reached by only one other player in NBA history in the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>‘ 143-135<\/a> win over the Utah Jazz<\/a> on Thursday, Luka Doncic<\/a> hardly sounded impressed with himself.<\/p>\n “I think, honestly, I could do so much more,” Doncic said after totaling 45 points, 14 assists, 11 rebounds, 5 steals and only 1 turnover. “But I think that one turnover is the best stat-wise on this stat sheet. We had seven turnovers, which is impressive for us and we won the game.”<\/p>\n Detroit Pistons<\/a> guard Cade Cunningham<\/a> became the first player to record a 45-point triple-double with five steals (since the league started officially recording steals in 1973-74) in an overtime win against the Washington Wizards<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n It was Doncic’s 10th career 40-point triple-double, joining James Harden<\/a>, Russell Westbrook<\/a> and Oscar Robertson as the only players to achieve the feat 10 or more times. And he became the first Laker to have a 40-point triple-double since Magic Johnson more than 40 years ago (March 28, 1981, also against Utah).<\/p>\n Yet with Doncic and the Lakers as a team setting season-low marks for turnovers, it allowed L.A.’s struggling defense to shore up at least one area of the game — the Lakers allowed the Jazz to score only nine fast-break points, which has been one of many problem areas for the team.<\/p>\n Lakers coach JJ Redick agreed with Doncic’s assessment.<\/p>\n “[He had] stretches of playing excellent, being engaged and executing our stuff defensively, and then stretches where he is not as engaged and isn’t executing our stuff defensively,” Redick said. “But I would say that’s for everybody. I think the biggest thing, he played certainly well enough to lead us to a win. Him and LeBron [James]<\/a>, with 24 assists and three turnovers [combined].”<\/p>\n James finished with 28 points, 10 assists and 7 rebounds and was able to stay in the game after a scary collision with Utah rookie Walter Clayton Jr<\/a>. in the first half.<\/p>\n Clayton ran into the inside of James’ left knee — the same knee in which James suffered an MCL sprain in the closeout game of L.A.’s first-round playoff loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> — and it caused the 23-year veteran to fall to the court and stay there for an extended period as teammates came to check on him with 7:52 left in the second quarter.<\/p>\n “Just a little bolt to the knee, like a sharp pain to the knee,” James said afterward. “Got kneed on the inside, like the medial side, of the knee. And just kind of wanted to take my time a little bit as it calmed down … or hoping it calmed down.<\/p>\n “I told Mike [Mancias], my trainer, I said, ‘We dodged a bullet there.'”<\/p>\n And on a night when the Houston Rockets<\/a> lost to the New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> and the Pistons lost to the Dallas Mavericks<\/a>, the Lakers dodged an upset bid by the Jazz, improving to 10-0 in clutch-situation games this season.<\/p>\n L.A. improved to 19-7, the third-best start through 26 games in the eight seasons that James has played for the Lakers.<\/p>\n Which is in part perhaps why James was more generous with his praise of Doncic — especially on a night when L.A. was down two starters in Austin Reaves<\/a> (calf) and Deandre Ayton<\/a> (elbow) — than Doncic was to himself.<\/p>\n “It’s Luka,” James said. “‘Luka Magic,’ so there’s no surprise. He’s just so damn good. It’s ridiculous.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave McMenaminDec 19, 2025, 02:36 AM ET CloseLakers and NBA reporter for ESPN. Covered the Lakers and NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-357866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCovered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009-14, the Cavaliers from 2014-18 for ESPN.com and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005-09.<\/p>\n