Luka Dončić poured in an NBA season-high 52 points on 25 October (US time) as the Los Angeles Lakers came back from 18 points down to beat the Utah Jazz 132-123 and move to 3-0. On the same day Minnesota and Detroit also kept their perfect records, and both jumped eight places into the top three of NBA.com's Week 2 Power Rankings, published on 26 October, behind Oklahoma City.
Dončić's record-breaking night
According to NBA.com's Starting 5 newsletter, Utah led 47-29 after the first quarter despite 17 points from Dončić. The Lakers won the second 45-24 to lead 74-71 at half-time, and Dončić then hit three 3-pointers in a late 14-5 run that put Los Angeles six points up with 1:42 left. Austin Reaves chipped in 29.
Dončić finished with 52 points, eight 3-pointers and 10 assists, becoming the first Laker to record at least 50 points, 10 assists, five rebounds and five 3s in a game. He also became the fastest Laker to reach 3,000 points for the franchise, needing 95 games to beat Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's previous mark of 109. “When he’s in the flow state, he gets into ‘Showman Mode,’” said coach JJ Redick.
In John Schuhmann's Power Rankings for NBA.com, the Lakers have the league's best offense (125.9 points per 100 possessions), and Dončić's 41.8% usage rate would be the highest for any player in 31 seasons of play-by-play data. Schuhmann still has them only seventh, up from 12th, noting that they are taking advantage of a soft start to their schedule.
Week 2 Power Rankings: top 10
| Rank | Team | Last week | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 2 | 3-0 |
| 2 | Detroit Pistons | 10 | 3-0 |
| 3 | Minnesota Timberwolves | 11 | 3-0 |
| 4 | Houston Rockets | 6 | 3-0 |
| 5 | Philadelphia 76ers | 4 | 3-1 |
| 6 | San Antonio Spurs | 1 | 1-2 |
| 7 | Los Angeles Lakers | 12 | 3-0 |
| 8 | Boston Celtics | 5 | 1-1 |
| 9 | Toronto Raptors | 8 | 2-1 |
| 10 | New York Knicks | 3 | 0-3 |
Detroit rose from 10th to second after wins over Boston, Miami and Philadelphia. Their 106-93 win in Philadelphia on 25 October, led from start to finish without Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson, left them as the East's only unbeaten team and alone in first place in the conference. Cade Cunningham had 26 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
Minnesota climbed from 11th to third behind the league's best defense, which has allowed just 96.1 points per 100 possessions. Their 117-94 rout of Toronto on the same day was a third straight win by more than 20 points; Anthony Edwards scored 26 and LaMelo Ball added 15 in his Minnesota home debut.
Oklahoma City moved up from second to first after a 108-101 win over the LA Clippers, in which Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored a game-high 34 after his record streak of 141 consecutive games with 20 or more points ended on 22 October. The win was overshadowed by a serious leg injury to Jalen Williams, who was stretchered off late in the fourth quarter. “Just feel bad for him,” an emotional Gilgeous-Alexander said.
At the other end, the defending champion Knicks lost 111-102 to Orlando to fall to 0-3 for the first time in seven years, dropping from third to 10th, while West champions San Antonio slid from first to sixth at 1-2. Schuhmann added some perspective: over the previous 22 seasons with 30 teams, 76 of the 100 teams that started 3-0 reached the playoffs, while only 27 of the 105 that started 0-3 did.
Who is still unbeaten
According to Starting 5, six teams in the West are still perfect: Minnesota, Oklahoma City, the Lakers, Memphis and Houston at 3-0, plus Portland at 2-0. In the East, Detroit are the last unbeaten team after Philadelphia's loss.
What's next
Schuhmann counts three Week 2 games between teams unbeaten through Week 1, and Portland are involved in two of them: they visit the Lakers on Tuesday, 27 October and host Memphis two nights later, on 29 October (US time). Detroit also visit the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on 27 October. Group play in the Emirates NBA Cup then begins on Friday, 30 October with 10 games, including Knicks v 76ers and Lakers v Golden State Warriors. The Cup champion will be crowned on 11 December at Hinkle Fieldhouse.