Luka Dončić continued his excellent play against the Atlanta Hawks Monday night, when he logged 32 points (11-of-22 shooting), 10 assists, eight rebounds, five steals and two blocks in a 124-114 victory. For much of the game, his primary defender was Dyson Daniels, who led the league in steals in 2024-25 and has earned All-Defensive Team nods the past two seasons.
Daniels and Atlanta implemented a variety of schemes to try and slow the Dončić-led Lakers offense but nothing really worked. Los Angeles
scored 124 points and posted a 120.4 offensive rating, despite Dončić‘s co-star at guard, Austin Reaves, sitting out the second leg of the back-to-back. After the game, Daniels bestowed quite the complimentary label upon Dončić to succinctly summarize the Slovenian’s offensive dominance.
“He’s probably the hardest guy to guard in the NBA right now,” Daniels told reporters. “And then, he’s also a willing passer, so.”
While Dončić flourished individually, his gravity and wondrous playmaking helped role players like Sandro Mamukelashvili (23 points, 7-of-13 shooting), Walker Kessler (21 points, 8-of-12 shooting), Collin Sexton (18 points, 6-of-11 shooting) and Ziaire Williams (12 points, 5-of-10 shooting) produce efficient scoring nights alongside him in Atlanta, which Daniels acknowledged, too.
Dončić and the 11-2, West-leading Lakers have been a buzzsaw offensively this season. Generating 122.5 points per 100 possessions, they own the NBA’s top-ranked offense, per Cleaning the Glass. Dončić himself is averaging a preposterous 38.6 points and 7.6 assists per game while shooting 58.7% inside the arc and a career-high 40.8% from deep. He’s taking a league-high 13.4 triples each night and making a league-high 5.5 of them. The Lakers are scoring 131.0 points per 100 possessions when he’s on the court.
Dončić may be the engine but his backcourt buddy, Reaves, is crucial to Los Angeles’ success and also off to a ripping start. He’s averaging 24.7 points and 4.7 assists on a .513/.409/.915 shooting split. If those marks hold, he’d join the prestigious 50-40-90 club, which currently features nine NBA players, five of whom are MVPs and eight of whom are All-NBA honorees.
Dončić and the Lakers return to the court Sunday against the Phoenix Suns, when they’ll look to push their winning streak to eight games. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
You can follow Jackson on Twitter at @jackfrank_jjf.
