The beautiful thing about the game of basketball is that there is always a cherry-picked statistic for anything. Make no mistake about it, the intention of today's writeup is not to skew the information being presented. However, there are indeed some specific qualifications to this latest historical achievement by Luka Doncic.
Doncic is still continuing to truly find his place in the Los Angeles Lakers offense. Despite that, the Lakers superstar is already positioning himself in the same conversations as some of the best players to ever wear purple and gold.
In a recent assessment of Doncic's start in Los Angeles, the Slovenian superstar found himself in the company of none other than LeBron James. In nearly every regard, James is exactly the type of player that one should want to be brought up next to. Today, the early returns of Doncic's run with the Lakers join another all-time great player.
Doncic's scoring surge puts him next to Kobe Bryant in Lakers history
To many Lakers fans, Kobe Bryant is the greatest player in franchise history. There is certainly a healthy debate to be had between him and Magic Johnson, in that regard, but at the very least, the Black Mamba is top two. For whatever it is worth, Johnson has proclaimed Bryant as the top of the food chain in Lakers history.
Sharing any aspect of the franchise's history with Kobe speaks to a very notable achievement. Such is the case with Doncic here.
According to StatMamba on Twitter/X, Luka has the most consecutive 20-point games by a Lakers guard since Kobe in 2013. It is worth noting that Doncic's streak of 10 games in a row is still far away from Bryant's mark of 24 consecutive outings.
There was one notable asterisk to the statistical achievement here. An account called Hardwood Junkies pointed out that, technically, when James played point guard in the 2019-20 season for the Lakers, his streak of 21 far outdoes Doncic's 10.
On one hand, outlets like Basketball Reference will back up that James's primary position in the 2019-20 campaign was indeed point guard. On the other hand, the all-time great was listed as a forward on the All-NBA First Team for that season.
Asterisks aside, the takeaway here should be that Doncic is continuing to grow more comfortable in his new environment.
During that 10-game streak, the Lakers guard has averaged 29.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, 8.6 assists and 2.0 steals per game, with shooting splits of 41-37-78. As Doncic continues to piece it all together in Los Angeles, the anticipation of what this season could result in will only grow.