Asked to describe what he\u2019d seen from Luka Don\u010di\u0107 in the early days of the 2025-26 NBA season, Marcus Smart found himself forced past grammar, diction and sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cFantasticness,\u201d<\/a> Smart offered after the Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 win last Friday over the slumping Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Is that a word? Well, not strictly speaking, no. But then: If stuff like what Luka\u2019s been putting on the court doesn\u2019t inspire you to start reaching beyond the surly bonds of language, are you even really a poet?<\/p>\n Those first Men\u2019s Health cover shots<\/a> of a newly chiseled Luka raised Lakers fans\u2019 expectations for what kind of magic he might make in his first full season in Los Angeles; his dominant run for Slovenia at EuroBasket 2025<\/a> sent those expectations into the stratosphere. But even the most cockeyed optimist probably would\u2019ve stopped shy of \u201caveraging 37 points, nine rebounds and nine assists per game on career-best shooting efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2026 and yet!<\/p>\n After another monster performance in a 121-111 win<\/a> over the Charlotte Hornets on Monday, that\u2019s exactly where Luka\u2019s at: leading the NBA in scoring and absolutely scorching as the pilot at the controls of a Lakers team that sits at 8-3 entering Wednesday\u2019s marquee nationally televised matchup with the rampaging<\/a>, defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Nico Harrison probably would\u2019ve gotten fired<\/a> anyway, given the rapid and rancid deterioration<\/a> in the state of affairs in Dallas since his fateful decision to trade Luka to L.A. for Anthony Davis. Don\u010di\u0107 opening the season looking even better than the version that made five consecutive All-NBA First Teams and led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals, though, probably didn\u2019t help Nico\u2019s cause all that much. What\u2019s that they say? Living well is the best revenge?<\/p>\n Granted: \u201cThis is the best Luka Don\u010di\u0107 we\u2019ve ever seen\u201d is an awfully lofty claim. It\u2019s also one that\u2019s getting harder to argue, though, as he progresses through what\u2019s become a legitimately historic season-opening heater. Don\u010di\u0107 is averaging just over one point per minute of play, a Giannis\/healthy Embiid level of scoring dominance; according to Justin Kubatko of Statitudes<\/a>, Don\u010di\u0107 was just the second NBA player ever to score 200 or more points through his first five games, and the first to do it since the 1962-63 season. When the only person sharing a statistical achievement with you is Wilt Chamberlain, then chances are you\u2019re doing pretty friggin\u2019 well \u2026 and Don\u010di\u0107 is, virtually across the board. (\u201cVirtually\u201d because, thanks to a 1-for-11 shooting night from 3-point land in a win over the Heat, he\u2019s at just 32.1% from long distance. Achilles had the heel, you know?)<\/p>\n He\u2019s been devastating when penetrating off the dribble, trailing only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, teammate Austin Reaves and Cade Cunningham of the surging Pistons<\/a> in points scored on drives to the basket<\/a>. His touch on the interior remains imperial; he\u2019s shooting a career-best 65.5% inside the arc, including an absurd 88% at the cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n That, plus a 79.3% success rate at the charity stripe, where he\u2019s going more often than ever, has more than counteracted the frosty start from long range: Through seven games, Luka\u2019s true shooting percentage (which factors in 2-point, 3-point and free-throw accuracy) is .628, which would be by far the highest of his career. The only players who\u2019ve ever finished a season with a usage rate and true shooting percentage<\/a> even close to as high as Luka\u2019s are right now: James Harden in 2019-20, Joel Embiid in 2020-21 and 2022-23, and Giannis Antetokounmpo last season.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n In addition to leading the league in scoring, Don\u010di\u0107 is also sixth in assists per game<\/a> and points per game created via assist<\/a>. And despite an absolutely mammoth shot-creation workload in the absence of LeBron James \u2014 leading the NBA in usage rate<\/a>, second in touches<\/a> (behind Tyrese Maxey) and time of possession<\/a> (behind Cunningham), with the ball in his hands 44% of the time he\u2019s on the floor, according to NBA RAPM<\/a> \u2014 Luka\u2019s posting the lowest turnover rate of his career, coughing it up on just 11.5% of the offensive possessions he uses.<\/p>\n The assists are up and turnovers down, in part, because of the chemistry he\u2019s developing with big men Deandre Ayton \u2014 he has 17 assists on Ayton buckets<\/a> in just 161 shared minutes<\/a> \u2014 and Jaxson Hayes. Having a pair of huge rim-running roll threats who draw defensive attention creates additional space for Luka to cook in the in-between game; he\u2019s shooting 58.5% on non-rim shots in the paint and 56.5% from midrange, according to NBA Advanced Stats<\/a>.<\/p>\n When combined with credible catch-and-shoot targets on the perimeter \u2014 Rui Hachimura and Jake LaRavia have both been shooting the lights out \u2014 it also makes for a pretty stunning engine of consistent NBA offense. Including plays where he passes to a teammate who shoots, the Lakers are scoring 1.173 points per play out of a Don\u010di\u0107 pick-and-roll \u2014 the third-highest rate of any player to finish at least 75 such plays, according to Synergy Sports, behind only rising-star running buddy Reaves<\/a> and Bucks breakout performer Ryan Rollins<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Luka\u2019s previous career-high watermark in pick-and-roll point production, by the way: 1.157 points per play, back in 2022-23 \u2026 when he led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n [<\/strong>Get more Lakers news: Los Angeles team feed<\/strong><\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n All told, the Lakers rank sixth in points per non-garbage-time possession<\/a>, according to Cleaning the Glass. With Luka on the floor<\/a>, though, they\u2019re scoring a mammoth 125.4 points-per-100 \u2014 a rate that would eclipse the Knicks\u2019 top-ranked offense.<\/p>\n \u201cHe just continues to get where he wants to go, and he takes what the defense gives him,\u201d Lakers coach JJ Redick told reporters<\/a> after Don\u010di\u0107 scored 44 points against Memphis.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n A lot of the time, that\u2019s true. Sometimes, though, Don\u010di\u0107 side-steps taking what the defense gives, and just goes ahead and takes whatever he wants \u2026<\/p>\n Don\u010di\u0107 has provided everything the Lakers could\u2019ve asked for and then some \u2014 one of the biggest reasons why they\u2019re just a half-game out of second in the West, hot on OKC\u2019s trail, despite Don\u010di\u0107 missing four games, despite Reaves missing three games with groin soreness, and despite James not having played yet as he works through a sciatica issue.<\/p>\n As Law Murray noted at The Athletic<\/a>, Redick has already had to cycle through seven different starting lineups in 11 games<\/a> as he navigates all the injuries. It\u2019s not yet clear when Redick will have a full squad to deploy \u2014 LeBron\u2019s working out with the Lakers\u2019 G League affiliate<\/a> in advance of a potential return, but a specific timeline remains TBD \u2014 or when he\u2019ll be able to ease off the gas in terms of just how much he\u2019s asking of Luka.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n He\u2019ll have to at some point; it seems unreasonable to expect even a supernaturally gifted playmaker in the best shape of his life to continue at this torrid a pace. Then again, magicians thrive on subverting the audience\u2019s expectations. And considering the magic Luka\u2019s performing on a nightly basis, maybe we\u2019d be best served to just sit back, watch the show, and wait for the next play that\u2019ll send Smart and the rest of us grasping for the most appropriate adjective we can find.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asked to describe what he\u2019d seen from Luka Don\u010di\u0107 in the early days of the 2025-26 NBA season,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":374492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[6272,17378,28733,19151,3118,1596,3372,63761,3368,25875,18169,6271,128309,8606,3363,224,3141,3365,25873,3135,1260,25927,66605,3371,62,180316,36689,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-374491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-anthony-davis","9":"tag-austin-reaves","10":"tag-bucks","11":"tag-cade-cunningham","12":"tag-charlotte-hornets","13":"tag-dallas","14":"tag-deandre-ayton","15":"tag-embiid","16":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","17":"tag-jake-laravia","18":"tag-james-harden","19":"tag-jaxson-hayes","20":"tag-jj-redick","21":"tag-knicks","22":"tag-lebron-james","23":"tag-los-angeles","24":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","25":"tag-luka-doncic","26":"tag-marcus-smart","27":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","28":"tag-nba","29":"tag-rui-hachimura","30":"tag-ryan-rollins","31":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","32":"tag-sports","33":"tag-true-shooting-percentage","34":"tag-tyrese-maxey","35":"tag-united-states","36":"tag-unitedstates","37":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}