Dončić Becomes First Player Since Jordan To Average 40 Points In Six Straight Road Games

The LA Lakers are playing their best basketball of the season, and it is no coincidence that Luka Dončić is having his best run in a purple and gold uniform. 

After dropping 43 points on the Indiana Pacers in a 137-130 LA victory, Dončić became the first player to average 40 points over a six-game span while on the road since Michael Jordan did it while with the Chicago Bulls in 1986. That’s almost forty years without any other NBA star accomplishing the same feat. Not LeBron James, not Kevin Durant, not James Harden. 

Dončić’s six-game scoring spree started with 36 points against the Houston Rockets and then another 40 two nights later against the same Rockets squad. Less than 25 hours later, the Lakers found themselves in Miami, where Dončić dropped 60 against the Heat, followed by 33 in Orlando, and then 32 in Detroit. Add in the 43 against the Pacers, and it comes out to an average of 40.7 points per game. But it wasn’t just buckets that Dončić was putting up on the stat sheet; he also chipped in with 6.7 rebounds and 6.3 assists while shooting 48%. Needless to say, the Lakers went 5-1 in that span with a three-point loss coming at the hands of the Pistons. 

In comparison, Jordan’s scoring run came back early in the 1986-87 season, starting with 37 points against Denver, 41 on the Lakers, 40 in Golden State, another 40 in Seattle, 45 against the Jazz, and capping it off with 43 in Phoenix for an average of 41 points per game. The difference between Jordan’s run and Dončić’s is that the Bulls went 1-5. While the individual accolades are nearly the same, the team results are much different. 

Leading the league with 14 games of 40+ points this season (Anthony Edwards is second with 10), Dončić has recently found himself back in contention for the MVP award that was once seen as a three-player race between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Victor Wembanyama, and Cade Cunningham.