Doncic's 53 points lift Lakers past Trail Blazers in NBA Cup rematch

Luka Doncic scored 53 points to carry the Los Angeles Lakers past the Portland Trail Blazers, 124-118, in an NBA Cup group-stage game Friday night at Crypto.com Arena, erasing a double-digit early deficit and avenging a loss to the same team ten days earlier. The outburst was the 11th 50-point game of Doncic's career and his fourth with the Lakers, and it pushed Los Angeles to 8-2 on the season, winners of four straight.

Doncic finished 17 of 33 from the field and 5 of 15 from three, adding 14-of-18 shooting from the free-throw line, five rebounds, five assists and a steal in 38 minutes, according to the official box score. He scored 20 points in the third quarter alone, part of a stretch that turned a seven-point halftime deficit into a double-digit lead, and he punctuated the first half by banking in a 61-foot heave at the buzzer after missing his first five three-point attempts of the night. Austin Reaves added 25 points for Los Angeles, and center Walker Kessler contributed 16 points and 12 rebounds. Deni Avdija led Portland with 22 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds, and Damian Lillard scored 22; Donovan Clingan had 17 points and 11 rebounds off the bench for the Trail Blazers, who played the game without point guard Ja Morant because of a hamstring strain.

A 19-point third-quarter swing

Portland built a cushion early, leading by as many as nine points in the first quarter and taking a 60-53 edge into the half. The Lakers reversed that in a hurry, outscoring the Trail Blazers 34-15 in the third quarter on the strength of a 17-0 run that flipped a seven-point deficit into a double-digit lead. Los Angeles stretched the margin to 16 points early in the fourth quarter during a 32-11 stretch spanning the end of the third and start of the fourth, and though Portland clawed back within four points in the final minutes, the Lakers closed it out, with Doncic and Reaves combining for 10 points down the stretch. A jumper from Doncic in the lane with 28 seconds left effectively sealed it. Attendance was announced at 19,057.

Revenge inside the same group

Friday's result also settled a score. The Trail Blazers beat the Lakers 136-129 at the same arena on Oct. 27, Los Angeles' first loss of the season, with Avdija and Lillard combining for 44 points and Doncic scoring 41 in defeat. The two teams were always likely to meet twice in quick succession: both are grouped together in West C of this year's Emirates NBA Cup, the league's in-season tournament, alongside the Spurs, Warriors and Kings, with group play running from Oct. 30 through Nov. 27 before quarterfinal seeding is set. Friday's win moved the Lakers to 8-2 overall; Portland, which had won six of its first seven games on the season, slipped to 6-2 and closed out a four-game road trip with its second loss.

A $130 million bet already paying off

Kessler's performance carried extra weight for a Lakers front office that gave up two unprotected first-round draft picks and two first-round swaps to pry him away from Utah in a July sign-and-trade, a deal the team announced alongside a four-year, $130 million contract for the 24-year-old center. Kessler, who had his left shoulder surgically repaired last November and missed the back half of his final Utah season, has given the Lakers size and rim protection next to a backcourt built around Doncic and Reaves. His double-double against Portland was his third of the season.

Doncic's own standing with the Lakers remains the bigger story of the young season. Acquired from Dallas in the blockbuster trade that sent Anthony Davis to the Mavericks in February 2025, Doncic committed to Los Angeles that August with a three-year, $165 million maximum contract extension carrying a player option for the 2028-29 season. He is averaging 40.1 points, 7.8 rebounds and 7.7 assists a game so far this season, a scoring pace that would be the highest of his career and among the highest in league history if sustained over a full campaign. Doncic has already produced 50-point, 40-point and multiple triple-double performances in the season's first ten games, and Friday's 53 continued a run in which he has carried a Lakers roster that has leaned heavily on him for offense while newer additions like Kessler settle in. Five days before the Portland game, Doncic scored 45 points, grabbed a season-high 15 rebounds, dished six assists and had five steals in a 131-125 win over Toronto, finishing with 40 points, 10 rebounds and five steals in the same game for the second time in his Lakers career — a line no other Lakers player had produced since the 1982-83 season. That followed a 52-point night in a come-from-behind win at Utah on Oct. 25 and sandwiched a lopsided loss at Golden State, where Los Angeles blew a 25-point lead, a reminder that the Lakers' record has come with some uneven stretches even as Doncic's individual scoring has stayed at a career-best pace.

What's next

With the season series against Portland now split 1-1, roughly three weeks of NBA Cup group play remain before the single-elimination knockout bracket is set; under the format, the higher seed hosts each conference semifinal. Portland, which had opened the season on a high note before a rough closing stretch of its road trip, returns home to the Moda Center to regroup, with Morant's hamstring the lingering question for a team that had positioned itself as a surprise early-season contender in the West behind forward Deni Avdija, who entered Friday averaging better than 22 points a game, a team high, alongside Lillard and center Donovan Clingan. For the Lakers, Doncic's health and workload — he has played heavy minutes through a compressed early schedule, including Friday's 38 — are likely to be a running storyline as Los Angeles tries to balance Cup positioning against the long grind of an 82-game season. The NBA Cup championship game is scheduled for Dec. 11 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.